The Abia State Government has branded the Senator representing Kogi West at the National Assembly, Senator Smart Adeyemi as a “village idiot”.

Chief John Okiyi Kalu, the Abia State Commissioner for Information, made this known in a statement on Tuesday.

This follows some uncomplimentary remarks that Senator Adeyemi made about the Governor of Abia State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, on the Senate floor on Tuesday.

Adeyemi had called Ikpeazu a Champagne drinking governor.

He had said: “In some states where we have highly intelligent people, highly educated people, very enterprising people, like Abia, they are governed by drunkards. The Governor of Abia is a champagne drinking man.

“Abia people are impoverished more than ever before. Abia people are unfortunate.”

The statement reads in part: “Sadly, it appears that the hallowed platform provided by the National Assembly is now a village square for confirmed village idiots to open their mouths, thereby doing a great disservice to the great men and women, past and present, that have been elected to serve as Senators.

“For the records, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu doesn’t drink alcoholic beverages of any kind and I make bold to invite ‘Undistinguished’ Smart Adeyemi to appear at a place of his choosing with the Governor for a test for alcohol in the blood system. He should also not forget to bring along his own state Governor for the test.

“We know that only confirmed drunks will see and call even saints drunkards and we want to give Adeyemi the opportunity to prove that past allegations of drunkenness induced misbehavior against him are false.

“Sadly, a man like Senator Adeyemi who is described by his professional colleagues as the most despicable NUJ President in history who engaged in dubious project tours allegedly to siphon the resources of the Union is the one abusing the privilege of being elected a senator in a constituency where the more erudite and socially justice conscious Senator Dino Maleye also contested is a sad commentary on the situation we find ourselves as a country especially at a time of national security crises requiring serious and focused actions by all arms of government.

“While we have no reason to disparage the Governor of Kogi State for the actions of the misguided Senator, it’s important to point out that Abia enjoys the rating of being one of the safest states in Nigeria under the watch of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu who is well known to have invested in technology and hardware to support peace and security in the state. If only our village idiot has taken time to study the development pattern in Abia State he would have seen that Governor Ikpeazu’s Abia has maintained the first position in the performance ranking of states by the West Africa Examination Council.

“Recently, reports from NBS confirmed that Ikpeazu’s Abia was the 3rd highest investment destination in 2020 among other States of the federation only after Lagos and Abuja and at a time Smart and his masters couldn’t even understand the science of Coronavirus disease pandemic.

“We don’t need any apology from Adeyemi who only confirmed the saying that ‘every time a fool opens his mouth, he advertises his absence of intelligence’, yet, we must advise the leadership of the Senate to evolve ways to prevent legislative misfits from using the protection offered by its hallowed chambers to abuse men who are by far better than them in all ramifications. After all, but for the immunity offered by the chambers of the National Assembly, Smart Adeyemi would’ have been facing libel charges for his malicious rant.”