Ihiala natives to honour Ekwueme, Gov Obi today

The people of Ihiala will on December 31 honour former vice president, Alex Ekwueme and Governor Peter Obi for their contributions to the development of the town. The honour will be the climax of the one-week celebration of the biennial Ihiala Day, according to the President General of the Ihiala Progressive Union (IPU), Mr Vin Ifeanyi Ezeaka, a lawyer and economist.
Ezeaka disclosed in a statement yesterday that Dr Ekwueme “played a critical role in the nomination of Mr Paulinus Amadike as a minister in the Second Republic and supported him every inch of the way in the discharge of his duties.” The late Amadike, “remained the only person to have been a member of the Federal Executive Council from Ihiala Local Government Area, which came into being in 1966 when Col Emeka Ojukwu was the military governor of the defunct Eastern Region, thus making it one of the largest and oldest local government areas in the country,” explained the IPU leader.
Ezeaka also observed that Dr Ekwueme, in 1982 chaired the Federal Executive Council meeting, which approved the award of a contract of a major road, which started at Okija in Ihiala Local Government Area and terminated at Omoku in Rivers State.