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| Late Ogbonnaya Onu |
'Seun Ibukun-Oni, Abuja
DAILY COURIER - President Bola Tinubu and his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari have extended their deepest condolences to the Onu family over the passing of Chief Ogbonnaya Onu, CON.
Chief Onu passed away on Thursday at the age of 72.
The President, in a statement by his spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, mourned a luminous star in Nigeria’s political firmament – the first civilian governor of old Abia State; former minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, a principal draughtsman in the founding of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and a valiant partner in the victory of the party in the 2015 elections.
Most importantly, the President celebrated the life of an accomplished scholar, first-class engineer; a man of proven integrity; defiant to indiscipline, but ever yielding to the highest standards of rectitude.
President Tinubu affirmed that Chief Onu epitomised Nigeria in concord; in wholeness, as the late statesman believed in and defended Nigeria’s unity, advocated peace, and promoted fellowship across the Niger.
The President also condoled with the friends and associates of Chief Onu, Ebonyi and Abia State Governments, and all Nigerians grieving this gaping loss.
‘He was an intellectual giant’, Buhari mourns Ogbonnaya Onu
Former President Muhammadu Buhari has joined family members of the immediate-past Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, and the entire nation in mourning the demise of the notable politician and the first civilian governor of Abia State.
In his reaction to the news of the death of the former national chairman of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), a party that once fielded him as a presidential candidate, former President Buhari said the nation had lost “one of its most outstanding scientific minds and intellectuals.”
In a terse statement signed by his spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, a copy of which was sent to DAILY COURIER, Buhari further said of Onu: “He was an intellectual giant. My heart goes out to his family, the government and people of Abia State and the country at large. May his soul rest in peace.”
