30th June, 2016
Aluu Community in Ikwerre Local Government of Rivers has been thrown into mourning mood following the passing on of Chief Elechi Amadi, an educationist and author.
Amadi, 82, a retired army officer and former commissioner for education in Rivers, died on Wednesday in Port Harcourt.
A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), who visited the community on Thursday reports that many residents received the news of Amadi’s death with shock.
Some of the residents said they would miss him, especially his fatherly role and philanthropist disposition.
Chief Adi Wali, a cousin to Amadi, said that his death was a big shock to the community.
“We have lost a father, brother and an icon. It is a big shock to this community. It is an end of a generation that can never be brought back,” he said.
Wali said that the late author was the light of the community, adding that they were yet to come to terms with his death.
“We lost an educationist, a pathfinder and a colossus. I do not know when we can get somebody like him again,” he said.
He said that as Permanent Secretary in the state ministry of education, Amadi played a prominent role in the locating a campus of the University of Port Harcourt at Aluu.
Mr. Uzor Nwamara, the Chairman, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Rivers chapter, said some executive members of the group were with Amadi in the hospital an hour before he died.
“It was indeed very painful to hear that he passed on an hour after leaving him in the hospital.
“Its beyond a shock. Amadi was a father, philanthropist and was a founding member of the ANA in the country,’’ he said.