Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia has described the death of National Examinations Council (NECO) Registrar, Prof. Godswill Obioma, as profoundly sad and yet another blow to the people of Abia.
The governor made this statement in a press statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Onyebuchi Ememanka in Aba on Tuesday.
Obioma, who was the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the NECO, was reportedly died during a brief illness in his house on Sunday.
Ikpeazu said that he had sent a congratulatory message to the late Obioma barely a year ago, on May 22, 2020 after he was appointed the registrar of NECO.
“It is profoundly depressing for me to write a death tribute to one of our finest academics from Abia State, barely one year after I had written him a letter of congratulations on his appointment as NECO Registrar.
“Prof. Obioma was a personal friend of mine. As academics, we understood each other.
“He was always willing to listen to me and was always willing to bring his huge experience in educational administration to bear on what we do here,” he said.
According to him, he was always prepared to come down to Abia, even at the shortest of notices, once it had to do with the good of Abia State.
“He was one of those we partnered with when we were crafting the pillars of our administration in 2015 and he made very solid contributions to our educational road map.
“He was clearly one of the finest Mathematicians this country has ever produced. I feel a deep and personal sense of loss at his death.
“It is almost impossible to produce alternatives to men like Professor Obioma,” Ikpeazu said.
The governor described the death of Obioma as a major blow to the people of Abia and a greater blow to him as a person.
He said the state buried one of its appointees to the Federal Government, late Chidi Izuwah, a Director-General at the Infrastructure Regulatory and Concession Commission at the Presidency.
“Now we have lost Prof. Obioma. These men were of a special breed and represented our finest human resource contributions to the development of our country.
“Losing these two eminent and scholarly gentlemen in quick succession is indeed very sad for me as the governor and for our state,” Ikpeazu said.
Ikpeazu said that for emphasis that the death of Obioma was due to natural causes, describing as unfortunate, the attempt to politicize the death.
He said that giving Obioma’s death an ethnic undertone with the sole objective of exacerbating the already charged situation in the country was condemnable.
The governor, on behalf of the government and the people of Abia, sent his condolences to the family of Obioma, the people of Nkpa Community, in Bende Local Government Area, and the academic community.
Ikpeazu prayed the Almighty God to grant Obioma’s soul eternal rest and console his family.
VANGUARD
