Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has said he is a teetotaller but does not have anything against those that drink alcohol.
He said this in reaction to the verbal attack launched against him by the Senator representing Kogi West, Smart Adeyemi on the floor of the upper chamber.
Adeyemi had described Ikpeazu as a “champagne drinking man” and a “drunkard” adding that the people of Abia are so unfortunate to have him as their governor.
But reacting to the attack Ikpezu said, “I don’t drink (alcohol) and I don’t begrudge those who drink.”
Ikpeazu spoke at the public presentation of a book, “Made in Aba” written by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, in Abuja, yesterday.
He said, “In other countries where there less problems than ours, people discuss big issues of economic growth, big issues of infrastructural development.
“I will end by quoting what Chinua Achebe said in his book: ‘If a mad man picks your cloth while you are in the bathroom and takes off, and you go after him naked, nobody will know who is mad.”
Also, speaking during the book presentation, foremost economist, Prof. Pat Utomi, said Abaribe’s book “speaks to the challenge of nation-building.”
On how to tackle insecurity, Utomi advised the private sector in the southern part of Nigeria to organise security networks to defend their economic interests.
