The Commissioner for Environment in Abia, Dr Solomon Ogunji, is dead.
The state’s Commissioner for Information, Chief John Okiyi-Kalu, confirmed the development in a statement issued in Umuahia on Sunday.
Okiyi-Kalu stated that Ogunji died on Saturday “after a brief illness, relating to high blood pressure” at the Abia State University Teaching Hospital in Aba.
The statement read in part, “It is with great sadness and a deep sense of loss that we announce the demise of a member of Abia State Executive Council and the Honorable Commissioner for Environment, Dr. Solomon Ogunji, who passed away on Saturday, 23rd May, 2020, at the Abia State University Teaching Hospital, Aba, after a brief illness related to high blood pressure.
“Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, who received the sad news with shock yesterday (Saturday) has personally communicated and condoled with the family of the bereaved and is currently in mourning.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Ogunji was a senatorial aspirant in the 2019 general elections, seeking to represent Abia South on the platform of the PDP.
He was appointed special adviser to Ikpeazu on urban renewal in 2015 and later commissioner for environment in the previous administration.
Ogunji, who was a close political ally and confidant of the governor, was a member of the state’s Inter-Ministerial Committee on COVID-19.
“We pray that the Almighty God will give the family of Dr Ogunji the fortitude to bear this irreparable loss and rest his soul in the bosom of the Lord”, Kalu prayed.
