2nd November, 2010
The northern town of Ogoja in Cross River State along with surrounding villages like Okpoma and Okuku came alive over the weekend when Mr John Odey, the Minister for Environment buried his mother, Mrs Martina Iyaji Ogar Odey.
The woman died on the 6 October at the Gerneral Hospital Ogoja. The 86- year old women took ill after a fall on 4 February 2007 while rushing to the children’s room to rescue them following an outbreak of fire in the house. Since then she has been in and out of hospital until her death in October.
The burial, which came up three weeks after her death attracted dignitaries from Calabar, Abuja, Lagos and Enugu . Most of them came in helicopters because of the bad state of roads in the state. Four helicopters landed at Primary School Okpoma, close to Christ the King Catholic Church, Okpoma venue of the funeral mass.
The area witnessed the largest number of SUVs as virtually all the top functionaries from Calabar and Abuja who drove through the bad roads came in SUVs. All the hotels in Ogoja and Okuku were fully booked days ahead of the burial.
Mr John Odey, who is the only male child of the mother, read a tribute to celebrate the achievements of the mother. He said he will always remember the lessons she taught him, particularly the one on poverty and wealth creation.
“You taught us how to farm, brew local drink from millet, fetch salt from the ponds and heat salt water to form cone salt among other things,â€Â Odey wrote in the tribute.
He said because of the love the mother had for him, she stopped trading at the weekly Okuku market “to take care of me because I was nearly knocked down by a lorry during my primary school days. I miss you dearly and unfortunately I did not know any of your siblings because you were the only surviving child of your mother.â€
Odey thanked God for sparing the life of the mother to guide her children this far.
At the funeral was Senator Liyel Imoke, Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State, Senator Victor Ndoma Egba, Senator Bassey Ewa Henshaw, Senator Greg Ngaji, and a delegation from the presidency led by the Chief of Staff to President Goodluck Jonathan.
—Emma Una/ Calabar