The feud between two Igbo senators, Messrs Ifeanyi Ubah and Chukwuka Utazi, over the alleged unpleasant comments against Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company Limited has taken an ugly dimension,  investigation has revealed.

There was an uproar on the floor of the Senate during plenary last Tuesday when Utazi raised a point of order to draw the attention of his colleagues to an alleged disparaging comments made by a lawmaker against the Managing Director of IVMCL, Chief Innocent Chukwuma.

Utazi who came under order 43 of the Senate standing rule for self-explanation said there were orchestrated attempts by the lawmaker to run down the MD of the automobile firm and his business.

He had said, “It was highly disturbing and worrisome that such plots are coming from people within the same geopolitical zone with the industrial giant.

“Chief Innocent Chukwuma had done more than enough in getting the country industrialised as far as automobile sector is concerned than for some people to be ganging up against him and which must be condemned by the Senate.”

However, some South-East senators raised objections to Utazi’s submissions and wondered why he should bring such a local issue to the floor of the Senate.

The disturbing noise, however, forced the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, to direct Utazi to end his submission, describing it as controversial.

Even at that, the background noise the motion generated heightened with the voice of Ubah sounding louder than those of others.

Ubah insisted that nobody from his constituency was against Innoson Motors and wondered why Utazi, a senator from Enugu State, took it upon himself to mislead the Senate on non-existing attacks on an illustrious son from Anambra State.

The Senator did not end his anger against Utazi on the floor of the Senate. He addressed journalists after the plenary to further condemn the action of Utazi.

Ubah said he remained one of the biggest customers of Innoson vehicles, having purchased many of them for private and official purposes and could not have disparaged a firm he was patronising.

We learnt that attempts by some Igbo senators to settle the rift between Ubah and Utazi since their clash inside the chambers had not been successful.

The matter took a new twist on Saturday when Ubah demanded an unreserved apology to be done on the floor of the Senate, the same way the Enugu Senator made the allegation against him through a point of order on July 9.

Ubah in a letter to Utazi dated July 17 and made available to journalists on Saturday, noted that it was his response to the two separate letters of apology that the Enugu North Senator had written to him after the incident.

https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js

He, however, said what he wanted from Utazi was an unreserved and unambiguous apology on the floor of the Senate.

He also insisted that Utazi should mention the name of the Senator who opposed the purchase of the Innoson vehicles by the Senate.

The letter read in part, “While I commend your acknowledgement of the importance of promoting the Igbo economy, which is my core mantra and one of my utmost priorities in the National Assembly, it is unfortunate that you failed to mention the Senator who committed such an unpardonable act by opposing the procurement of vehicles made by Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company Limited during a Senate transport Committee Meeting which I never attended since I’m not a member.

“I find it most unfortunate and sad that till now, you are still unable to produce any evidence to prove that the alleged incident to de-market IVM occurred, or at least, apologise and inform Nigerians that you erred by bringing an unverified social media rumour to the floor of the Senate.

“As a distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, you should have contacted or consulted the leadership of the Senate Committee on Transport or any member of the committee which our highly respected brother and leader from Enugu, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, is a member, to find out if such happened.’’