Fresh details have emerged regarding Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi State’s decision to suspend 87 top government officials, a move initially attributed to their failure to attend an “important government function.”
It has now been revealed that the “important function” was, in fact, the burial ceremony of Innocent Elechi Ojiugwo, a close kin and significant financier of the governor’s campaign.
Governor Nwifuru had announced the suspension on Monday, July 28, 2025, via a statement from his spokesperson, Monday Uzor.
The affected officials included 25 commissioners, 14 senior special assistants, 24 special assistants, and 22 permanent secretaries.
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Findings indicate that Mr. Elechi, an entrepreneur from the same Izzi clan as the governor, was a major financier of Nwifuru’s governorship campaign, which observers suggest may have led the governor to mandate attendance by all government officials at the funeral.
According to Nwifuru’s itinerary, all state government appointees, including the deputy governor, speaker and deputy speaker of the Ebonyi House of Assembly, members of the National and State Assemblies, ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) officials, local government chairpersons, principal officers, various assistants, permanent secretaries, board members, and even support and youth groups, were required to attend the funeral service.
On the day of the burial, July 2, 2025, Governor Nwifuru’s flight was delayed in Abuja, leading him to delegate Deputy Governor Patricia Obila to represent him and direct “all government officials to be there (at the burial).”
Leo Oketa, a senior special assistant to the governor on new media, confirmed this on Facebook, adding that the governor’s chief protocol officer had instructed that attendance be recorded.
Oketa explained that upon his return and review of the attendance list, the governor “became enraged” to discover that most officials had not attended.
“This is not the first time the governor has warned about government officials absenting themselves from government functions. This time, he had to act,” Oketa stressed.
However, Oketa’s explanation has drawn widespread condemnation from critics, who questioned the justification for suspending officials over absence from a burial ceremony.
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One critic, Ikechukwu Elom, expressed surprise that “the entire state government officials were drafted to attend a burial.”
Elom further criticized the media aide’s attempt to justify the suspensions, asking, “How is a private burial a state function to the extent that the entire gamut of state apparatus would be compelled to attend, and those who did not, were suspended?”
He suggested that even for a state burial like that of former President Muhammadu Buhari, not all federal government officials accompany the President.
Elom concluded, “In trying to set the record straight, the governor’s online media aide ended up opening another vista of confusion. Sometimes, it is better to be silent.”
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