BY JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU & JOSEPH ERUNKE
ABUJA—SENATE President, David Mark, yesterday, recalled some of the actions he took with his late friend and colleague, former Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Mike Okhai Akhigbe, while they were in the Nigeria Defence Academy, NDA, and service in the military, saying some were good while others were bad.
Mark said the late Akhigbe was “an officer and a gentleman because throughout his military career, he always had this disposition of being very benevolent, understanding, attentive and he could listen for a very long time” even as he said he rebuffed his advances while in the NDA to make him join the Nigerian Navy against his choice of Nigerian Army.
“When eventually we all graduated, we did so many things together. Good things and bad things but more of the good things than the bad things. Some of them are legacies that he has left behind but the most important thing about Akhigbe is that once he gives you his words you can go to sleep,“ he recalled.
The Senate President spoke in his remark, during consideration of a motion titled: “Demise of Vice Admiral Mike Okhai, GCON, sponsored by Senators Domingo Obende, APC, Edo North, Odion Ugbesia, PDP, Edo Central and Ehigie Uzamere, APC, Edo South respectively.
Mark said his relationship with the deceased was so close that there was nothing he didn’t know about him.
“I know Admiral Akhigbe very well. He is a friend. He is a brother. He is a confidant. We all met at very young age in 1967. When we went to the Defence Academy, we were so friendly that when I got to the Defence Academy, he forced me to be a Naval Cadet and that went on for a very long time and I was torn between joining the Nigerian Navy and the Nigerian Army @VANGUARD