Obituary: Alaribe, Aboh Mbaise Council pay condolence visit to Ugorji family

By Ferdinand Ibechodoh

The family of the late traditional ruler, Eze Stephen Nwabueze Ugorji, and the leadership of Lorji Nwekeukwu Autonomous Community, on Thursday received the Aboh Mbaise Local Government officials, who came to condole with them on the death of their royal father.

Led by the chairman, Barr. Iheukwumere Alaribe, the group extolled the virtues of late Eze, whom they said was a man of peace, dignity and honour.

Alaribe, who was elected Executive Chairman of Aboh Mbaise Local Government Area in 2024, told the family and the community that they had come for several reasons.

This includes, but not limited to, the fact that Eze Ugorji was a traditional ruler, that he ruled exceptionally well, that his first son is an accomplished leader in Aboh Mbaise, and that the same first son was a commissioner in the 3R Government of Imo State.

The late HRH Eze Stephen Nwabueze Ugorji

He opined that the late Eze left a huge and expansive legacy as a teacher, a family man, a community leader, and an academic. He urged the family and the community to preserve that extraordinary legacy.

The Chairman told the audience that the LGA government would donate the sum of five hundred thousand Naira (N500,000.00) for the burial of the late king.

Receiving the Chairman and the LGA officials, the President General of the community’s Town Union, Barrister Charles Akwete, thanked the Local Government officials for their visit.

He told them that the late king was a man given to peace and community development, who has been strongly backed by his first son, former Commissioner Ugorji Okechukwu Ugorji.

He pleaded with the Local Government to assist the community in making sure that the roads leading to the burial in the community are accessible to the thousands of visitors they were expecting.

Responding, the Opara Eze of Lorji Nwekeukwu Autonomous Community and the current head of Eze Ugorji’s family, Dr. Ugorji O. Ugorji, thanked the Chairman and the Local Government officials for finding time to be with them.

“My father was everything that has been said about him by Barrister Alaribe and Barrister Akwete and much more,” said Ugorji who served as the pioneer Commissioner for Homeland Security in Imo State under the Hope Uzodimma administration.

“For me, however, Eze Ugorji was first and foremost, Mpa (dad).

Barr. Iheukwumere Alaribe, Lorji Nwekeukwu Autonomous Community during the condolence visit to the family of the late traditional ruler, Eze Stephen Nwabueze Ugorji, over the death of their royal father

“He was a devoted family man, a role model for me in terms of manhood, fatherhood, and community activism, and a close dear friend and confidant for the sixty years during which I have been his first child,” the former Commissioner said.

Dr. Ugorji, who holds the traditional titles of Odoziobodo Mbaise, Nwaejiamatu of Aboh Mbaise, and Ide Mmuta Lorji, promised that the family would keep and guard the legacies the Eze left behind.

He said his priority at the moment was to protect his mother, Ugoeze Anastasia Ngozi Ugorji, and to bury his father with extraordinary dignity and fanfare.

He discussed a four-day schedule of activities to celebrate the late Eze, starting on Monday, May 19 to Thursday, May 22, 2025.

Present during the occasion were community leaders in Aboh Mbaise, members of the late Eze’s cabinet, and members of the Ugorji extended family.

(The writer, Sir Ferdinand Ibechodoh, is the chairman of the Public Relations and Publicity Sub-committee of the Eze Ugorji Burial Committee. He was the Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists in Imo State, and writes from Lorji.)

For Diaspora Digital Media Updates click on Whatsapp, or Telegram. For eyewitness accounts/ reports/ articles, write to: citizenreports@diasporadigitalmedia.com. Follow us on X (Fomerly Twitter) or Facebook