There was an altercation on Tuesday in the Senate between Kogi West Senator Smart Adeyemi and his Abia South counterpart, Enyinnaya Abaribe.
The drama occurred when Adeyemi referred to the Abia State Governor Okezie Ikpeazu as a “champagne-drinking man”.
Adeyemi, who was contributing to a motion on “Safe School Initiative in Nigeria”, was apparently reacting to a social media post that had berated Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello, an accusation that was linked to Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, who represents Abia South in the Senate. But Abaribe expressed surprise at Adeyemi’s outburst, denying ever making the alleged statement.
Adeyemi had said that while some governors, like Bello, were committed to the welfare and protection of their people, the people of Abia were being governed by “drunkards”.
He said: “Despite that some governors are doing their best, we are lucky to have a governor who has taken the issue of security as a serious priority.
“We are bordered by nine states, but we had an experience of the unfortunate incidents that are happening in neighbouring states.
“Some governors are committed to the protection of their people. In my state, the governor awarded contracts for the renovation of schools and provides security services to them.
“In some states of Nigeria today, where we have highly intelligent people, highly educated people, very enterprising people, like Abia, they are governed by drunkards. The governor of Abia is a champagne-drinking man. Abia people are impoverished more than ever before. Abia people are unfortunate.”
At that point, Senate President Ahmad Lawan cautioned Adeyemi against the use of what he called “un-parliamentary” language.
Responding, Abaribe expressed surprise at Adeyemi’s comment and urged him to apologise to the governor of Abia State.
He said: “Mr. President, I will like to make a clarification. Unfortunately, what has happened here today is one of the problems that you see on social media. I never made any comment on the governor of Kogi State. Never.
“What has happened is what we see going on today. People write something and tag your name to it. And if you don’t ask question, you will not know whether you actually said it or not.”