One of the ranking lawmakers at the Imo state House of Assembly, Arthur Egwim, is dead.
Our correspondent gathered that Egwim died on Monday days after he underwent a surgery in Lagos.
Until his death, he was the member representing Ideato North Constituency at the state House of Assembly.
He was first elected into the state House of Assembly in 2015 on the platform of the All Progressives Congress and was reelected in 2019 with the Action Alliance party.
He contested the House of Representatives seat in the just-concluded National Assembly elections under the platform of All Progressives Grand Alliance but failed.
He fell ill recently and underwent surgery but died afterwards, a source who doesn’t want to be mentioned confided in our correspondent on Monday night.
A lawyer by profession, the deceased was a vocal voice in the eight and night assemblies of the state parliament.
The source said, “They just broke the bad news to us this afternoon (Monday). He was flown abroad before for treatment. Money wasn’t the problem. The state government greatly assisted him to travel abroad for his medicals. It is very sad.”
Meanwhile, the speaker of the state House of Assembly, Emeka Nduka, has described as shocking Egwim’s death.
In a statement he personally issued on Tuesday, the speaker described Egwim as one of the finest brains among the 27 lawmakers.
Punch gathered as the statement read, “With heavy heart, but with total submission to the will of God, we, the members of Imo State House of Assembly, wish to announce the death of one of our own, a ranking parliamentarian of note and a strong voice in IMHA, Rt. Hon Barr Innocent Arthur Egwim, who untill his death he represented Ideato State Constituency,, whose sudden death took place on Monday, the 27th March, 2023 after a brief illness.
“Imo House of Assembly has indeed lost one of its finest and best brains. His demise will for a long time create a vacuum in the House.
“May his gentle soul rest in peace and may God grant his wife and members of his family the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss. We’ll miss him dearly.The burial arrangements will be announced by the family in due course.”
