Senate holds valedictory session for Ignatius Longjan

The Senate on Wednesday eulogised Ignatius Longjan as the lawmakers dedicated the whole day to a valedictory session for the late senator.

Mr Longjan died on February 9. He was 75. He represented Plateau South Senatorial District under the platform of the All Progressives Congress.

Until his death, he was the Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Culture and Tourism.

His coffin was laid outside the chamber, surrounded by well-wishers.

During the valedictory session, many lawmakers took turns to talk about the late lawmaker as they recalled the fun moments they had with him.

The Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, said the Senate has lost another good man. This is even as he wondered why “the good ones” are dying.

“All the wicked people are in this country they don’t die. It is the good ones that go. And so today, we commiserate with the wife and children and the people that he represents and of course the diplomatic community from where he came and Nigerians in general.

“Those of us from the South-east, the Igbos we say ‘death doesn’t know how to make choices on those that he wants to take’ otherwise he wouldn’t take a nice, humble, very unassuming person like Longjan.”

He said death will not take away the name of Mr Longjan because he had done well. He also described him as a peace builder, a good person and urged his family to remember him for those things for which he stood for.

The Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, who said he barely knew the senator, described him as humble, loyal and a man of integrity.

He also said Mr Longjan was a consummate senator and a diplomatic politician, having occupied several offices and risen to become a senator.

“I want the family to be consoled. Take pride in the fact that your husband rose to the rank of a senator,” he said.

On his part, Ibikunle Amosun noted that 21 senators have died between 2007 and 2020. He also wondered why good men die.

“It tells us how ephemeral this life is. We pray that we do not keep experiencing things like this. I have a different view about good men dying early.

“I think God himself knows, when good men die, they don’t die. They will be remembered in the life of those that were left behind and the bad ones, he leaves them to live and eventually when they die, nobody remembers them and when they do, they will be remembered for the wrong reasons,” he said.

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The lawmakers held a minute silence for Mr Longjan after which they all stepped out to pay their last respect to him.

Prior to his election as senator, Mr Longjan was a former deputy governor of Plateau State between 2011 and 2015. He replaced Jeremiah Useni of the Peoples Democratic Party who ran for the governorship seat in 2019.