|
Kinsmen
Kinsmen, Wabara mourn Nwizu
•Immigration plans burial
NDIDI OKAFOR, Abuja and FELIX UKA,
in Ogbunike
KINDRED
of the late Immigration Comptroller-General (CG), Lady Uzoamaka Nwizu, in her
hometown, Ogbunike, Oyi council area of Anambra State did not know she had
passed on.
However, lamentations filled the Oye Olisa
Ogbunike market yesterday as Daily Champion sought out the village folks
of the first female CG of Immigration and broke the news to them in the process.
Senate President, Adolphus Wabara, in
Abuja, mourned her describing her demise as a great loss.
Popularly known as Comfo in her
hometown, the village folks, who were beside themselves with grief, described
the late Lady Nwizu as "a leading light."
They lamented her demise and noted that
their town had again lost a beacon of hope, after the death of former Senate
President, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, as illustrious son of Ogbunike who held the
prestigious title of Oyi of Oyi.
The late Comptroller-General hailed from
Umuokubuagha clan in Osile village of Ogbunike.
Elder man in the clan, Chief Josephat
Obinwalo, could hardly control himself.
At their family house, a yellow bungalow,
nobody was seen as the deceased’s father, Chief Raphael Kaodigbo Uba, and wife
were said to have long died while Lady Nwizu’s only brother, Mr. Chigozie Uba,
an engineer, was reportedly away to Port Harcourt.
Her two sisters, Ozoemena and Edith both
married women, were said to be in their matrimonial houses outside the
homestead.
The octo-gnarian Chief Obinwalo, who
oversees the kindred, met by Daily Champion at Oye Olisa Ogbunike market
where he was selling livestock feed, initially lost control at news of the death
and remained speechless for over a minute with his head bowed.
On raising his head after he was urged to
do so by other elders who gathered at his shop, Obinwalo asked: "What are you
talking about? Comfo, Uba’s daughter? Dead?"
"Hei! This is calamity oh! (sobbing), I
don’t understand this. The worst has happened! Ogbunike has lost a leading
light. What is after us? Just recently Okadigbo (former Senate President) died
in government work," he said as others in the market joined him.
When asked if he knew that she was sick,
Chief Obinwalo restorted "leave, leave this thing, I am confused."
Earlier, at the family house, a widow,
Mrs. Benice Okoye, explained that the late Comptroller-General was married to
the Nwizu family in Nnewi in the state, and wept profusely.
"So this thing has really happened?" She
quarried.
Meanwhile, Senate President, Senator
Adolphus Wabara, has described as shocking, the death of Lady Nwizu.
In a statement, "Lady Nwizu’s death shocks
Wabara," signed by his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Mr. Henry Ugbolue, Wabara
said Nwizu was a "thorough and dedicated professional with an uncommon passion
for hard work."
Wabara recalled that Lady Nwizu’s rise to
the number one seat in the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) did not come as a
surprise as she had worked hard for it.
"She was clearly the most qualified
candidate when President Olusegun Obasanjo named her as the nation’s first
female Comptroller-General of the Immigration Service," he said.
The Senate President who expressed sadness
at Nwizu’s death, said she discharged her duties excellently and introduced
positive reforms in the service in line with the "desire of the federal
government to reinvent the public service for higher productivity."
Wabara said Lady Nwizu died at a time when
her services were needed most and prayed that God will give "President Olusegun
Obasanjo as well as the staff and management of the Nigeria Immigration Service
the fortitude to bear the loss."
He also condoled the Nwizus and prayed
that "God will calm and divinely condole with the family."
Daily Champion
gathered in Abuja that a crucial meeting by top brass of the
Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) has been fixed for today in Abuja, to discuss
the burial arrangement of late Lady Uzoamaka Nwizu who died last Friday.
The Public Relations Officer of NIS,
Mallam I.O. Yussuf, who dropped this hint in Abuja yesterday stated that the NIS
is set to give a befitting burial as never recorded in the history of the
service.
This, according to him, was informed by
the fact that "apart from being the first women to be made a Comptroller-General
(CG) she is the first CG to die in active service, so she deserve nothing less".
Mallam Yussuf who disclosed that three
separate condolence registers have been opened in both his headquarters and the
late boss’ official residence stated that the crucial meeting would have been
staged yesterday.
He said it was however not possible
because of the obvious confusion arising from the mourning mood, the death has
thrown the service into, hence, it was re-fixed for today.
Area 1, Garki District, revealed that two
of the condolence registers were opened in the offices of the late CG and the
Acting OCG, Mr Musa Baraya.
But a visit to her official residence at
zone 5 Wuse District, however showed that the third register may not have been
opened as 10 am yesterday, as claimed by NIS officials.
Also speaking, the Chief Press Secretary
(CPS) of the ministry of Internal Affairs Mr I. O. Nelson said an official
statement would likely be released today, insisting that as soon as the minister
is notified officialy by the late Nwizu’s family.
According to him, the news of the death of
such a highly placed government official will have to be broken first by the
family before anybody.
Meanwhile, a cross section of officers and
men of NIS have declared that, the late Lady Uzoamaka was the best CG the
service has ever produced.
|
