Abia Gov Recalled How Yoruba
Abia State governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, made excursion into history when the Yoruba community in the state honored him as the Most Accommodating Governor in Nigeria on Saturday.
Our correspondent reports that the Yoruba Community Development Association, Abia State branch, led by Comrade Babatunde Olatunde, was at the governor’s lodge in Aba on Saturday to confer the award and make more demands for accommodation in the state.
In a statement issued by the governor’s chief press secretary, Onyebuchi Ememanka, the governor said when military coup plotters wanted to kill the late former Head of State, Gen. Aguinyi Ironsi, late Col. Adekunle Fajuyi, a Yoruba officer, refused to give him up.
Comrade Olatunde had told the governor that most of them have lived in Abia State for several years, with a good number of them married to Igbo women and vice versa.
He said they had already adopted Abia as their home state.
The Yoruba community thanked the governor for ensuring that they have lived peacefully over the years.
They however appealed to the governor to grant them a parcel of land to build their Secretariat, give them opportunities to participate more, and contribute to the political development of the state.
They also requested a vehicle for their association.
Gov Ikpeazu, while responding, said his administration and indeed the people of Abia State will always and at all times, coexist peacefully with them and continue to provide an enabling environment for all citizens to pursue their legitimate undertakings.
He, among other things, promised to appoint a Yoruba man as Special Adviser on Ethnic Harmony.
The governor also approved a vehicle for the Yoruba community living in the state to ensure the smooth running of their association while also asking them to formally request a parcel of land to erect their Secretariat.
He said no Yoruba person in the state has any reason to nurse fear about residing and doing business anywhere in Abia State because Abia people see them as part and parcel of them.
Ikpeazu said that every indigene of Abia State has a responsibility to protect Yoruba, “because a Yoruba man and former military governor of the then Western Region, Late Col. Adekunle Fajuyi preferred to die with a former head of State, General Aguiyi Ironsi instead of allowing him to be taken away from his house where he was on official visit in July 1966.”
Ikpeazu said that he had visited Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State last week to commiserate with him on the massive destruction of public and private property in Lagos in the wake of the EndSars protests and “to thank him for ensuring that our people continue to enjoy the protection of the state government
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