The Chairman, Governing Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Mr. Chiedu Ebie, has hailed Obi (Prof) Epiphany Azinge, on his emergence as the Asagba of Asaba Delta State.
The NDDC boss also urged the new Asagba to use his wealth of experience for the development of Asaba under his reign.
Ebie’s message came via a personal statement on August 19, 2024, and was made available to journalists in Delta while a copy was sent to PUNCH Online Tuesday.
He expressed optimism that Azinge’s selection for the throne would bring good tidings to Asaba which doubles as a kingdom and capital of the Delta State.
The statement read, “His Royal Majesty, Obi (Prof) Epiphany Azinge, SAN, OON, is an accomplished legal partitioner who got to the pinnacle of academia pursuit and legal practice.
“As a legal luminary, his achievements are both towering and legendary. He is among the very well-respected senior lawyers that many of us looked up to during our formative years in legal practice.
“His legal treatise and dissertations on contemporary legal issues served as a formidable learning instrument readily available for law students and emerging lawyers to draw from his wealth of knowledge and experience’’.
Ebie further explained that as a former Delta State Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education and later, Secretary to the State Government, Obi Azinge, was his lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Benin, Benin-City, Edo State.
He stressed that as a lecturer, “Obi Azinge was reputed for being scholarly in the lecture halls, erudite in presentation, and strategic in thinking. As Director General of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, and later elected member that represented Nigeria and Africa at the Commonwealth Arbitral Tribunal in London, he left a bold public leadership footprint in the sand of history.”
While noting that his ascension to the traditional position would benefit the state and the nation as a whole, Ebie encouraged the Asagba designate, “to bring his wealth of leadership experience accumulated over the years to action in the present position as the 14th Asagba of Asaba.”