Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi has declared Wednesday, June 23 as public holiday in the state to mourn the state’s late commissioner for infrastructural development Fidelis Nweze.
Umahi made the declaration on Tuesday in Abakaliki while announcing the death of the commissioner from injuries sustained in a motor accident on June 19.
The governor directed that all offices and markets be shut in the state and declared a four-day mourning period to elapse on June 26.
“All government officials in collaboration with the state branch of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) would organise prayer and fasting sessions all through the mourning period.
“We have to pray for his family and the ring-road project which he was the chairman of its committee for the past six years,” he said.
Nweze is the second Ebonyi commissioner to die in about a month following the death of commissioner for housing Uchechi Okah on May 15.
Umahi described Nweze as his younger brother, son and indispensable pillar of his administration since 2015.
“He died on the morning of June 21, at the Turkish Hospital Abuja.
“He was travelling to Enugu on Saturday, June 19, about 7.pm with his orderly and driver as his vehicle rammed into a stationery articulated vehicle around Obinagu area of the state.
“They were all conscious after the accident as his orderly and driver sustained slight injuries and were discharged from hospital,” he said.
Umahi further explained that Nweze had neck injuries and experienced severe pains in the stomach which made him to direct that he be transferred to the Turkish Hospital, Abuja.
