Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, representing Abia South Senatorial District, has been named the Minority Leader of the Ninth Senate.
Emmanuel Bwacha from Taraba South also retained his position as Deputy Minority Leader, while the Senator, representing the Federal Capital Territory, Phillip Aduda, retained his position as the Minority Whip.
Abaribe was born on March 1, 1955. He earned his WASSCE from Government College Umuahia in 1974. He went on to the University of Benin, where he received a bachelor’s degree in Economics in 1979 and a master’s degree in Economics in 1982. He lectured at the Edo State University from 1982 until 1985.
Abaribe became Abia State’s Deputy Governor after Orji Uzor Kalu’s 1999 election to the Governorship. The state’s House of Assembly impeached the deputy governor twice in 2000 and a third time in 2003; as he was facing his third impeachment, he resigned on March 7, 2003, sending his resignation via DHL so as to have written record of it.
The House of Assembly formally voted him out of office several days later, in a move Abaribe called “medicine after death.” He was succeeded as deputy governor by Eric Acho Nwakanma. Abaribe ran for the governorship on the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) platform in 2003, but lost to Kalu.
