I’ve Lost My Best Friend of 40Years, Ikpeazu Laments

Abia State Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, has expressed deep pains following the death of his Commissioner for Environment and closest confidant, Dr. Solomon Ogunji, saying his death “is definitely very hard for me to swallow.”

“I didn’t just lose a commissioner, I lost my best friend of over 40 years,” he lamented, adding that Ogunji’s demise was “a deeply profound personal loss.”

Ogunji passed away on May 23, 2020, at the Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH), Aba, after a brief illness linked to high blood pressure.

The governor, who was emotionally distraught for losing a longstanding friend, said his friendship with late Ogunji started when the deceased was 13 and it had blossomed ever since.

According to him, their friendship grew and solidified to the extent that no one else has come closer to him in terms of personal relationships other than the late environment commissioner.

In his poetic elegy, the mournful Ikpeazu recounted with fond memories his long span relationship with Ogunji.

According to him, “We grew up together; attended the same secondary school where we were classmates. I cannot remember any other person that shares with me the kind of relationship I had with Solo.

“Many years ago, we both lost our fathers and incidentally, the two burials were fixed for the same day. While the funeral service for his father was still on before the burial proper, he left his village at Ohambele Ndoki and joined me at Umuobiakwa.