Chris Akomas resigns as Abia Deputy Gov

 However, Akomas was facing a six-count allegation of gross misconduct levelled against him by 21 members of the state House of Assembly.

The seven-man panel began sitting on July 29 under closed doors and concluded cross-examination of three witnesses on July 30.

The panel which continued sitting on Saturday could not proceed as the deputy governor insisted that it was impossible for him to present his 25 witnesses within one day, as directed by the panel.

The panel had insisted that Akomas should field all the witnesses on Saturday and conclude his presentation, resulting in a walk-out on the panel by Akomas and his team of lawyers.

Briefing newsmen after the walk-out, Akomas said that “I have decided to break my long silence which has remained golden to me so that we together can move the state forward.

“On July 30, I tendered my letter of resignation to Gov. Theodore Orji. For me it is time to bow out because integrity is better and more honourable that wealth,” he remarked.

The four-page letter recalled that while Orji was in Kirikiri Prisons during the 2007 electioneering campaign, it took the efforts of former Governor Orji Kalu and Akomas to win the gubernatorial election.

He expressed regrets that after the release of Orji, “neither I nor any of the teaming supporters that worked for your victory received any acknowledgement, when you assumed office.

“For the three years and two months, I have dutifully and conscientiously performed the duties of my office, despite the most excruciating and difficult circumstances under which I have had to discharge my duties.

He said that he shared accommodation with people who were not his personal aides, stressing: “as if this is not enough, your brother, Chief Charles Ogbonna, my Deputy Chief of Staff, has your instructions to issue me with queries.

“My efforts for you to call him to order met with rude shock,” he explained, claiming that the governor declared him an enemy after his defection to APGA as well as to sponsor the impeachment.

According to the letter, even in the face of provocation, “I have never uttered a word, not for lack of what to say, but purely as a mark of maturity, loyalty and respect for my elder brother, the governor.”