Governor David Nweze Umahi has lamented the death of a former Minister of Education, Dr. Igwe Aja-Nwachukwu, in an Israeli hospital.
Eng. Umahi, who was on a condolence visit to the family of the deceased in Abakaliki on Thursday, described Aja-Nwachukwu as a “peace advocate” and “one man that has a burning desire that we should succeed.”
The governor said, “When I visited him in the hospital in Israeli this month, he was not even concerned about his health, he was more interested in how we could replicate the standard of the hospital in our state. That is the kind of man he was. He was more interested in how we can move our state forward.”
He commended the Nigerian Embassy in Israel for the assistance it rendered to the former minister while in the hospital and promised that his family and his administration would always stand by the Aja-Nwachukwu family.
The governor disclosed that the state government sent a high powered delegation to Port Harcourt, Rivers State to receive the corpse of the former minister , which arrived the country enroute Lagos Airport.
Eng Umahi was accompanied on the visit by some of the state Executive Council members.
In his response, one of the sons of the late Aja-Nwachukwu, Mr. Amen Aja- Nwachukwu, thanked Governor Umahi for his concern for their family and for coming to sympathise with them.
He assured that he would look after his mother and siblings as charged by their father while traveling to Israel for medical treatment.
He told the Governor that the traders would next week Tuesday; hold a solidarity rally at the state stadium, Abakaliki in demonstration of their support to the state government.
