- Untold Stories of Imoke’s Historic Appearance, Declaration of Egbona As Abi Leader
For at least three days, Ekureku, the country home of Dr Alex Egbona who represents Abi/Yakurr Federal Constituency of Cross River State in the House of Representatives stood still, as her mother, Madam Maria Enya was being buried.
It was the first time the community will host the quality and number of visitors that thronged the community reputed for rice and cassava farming. There were scores of National Assembly members, former and serving governors, former and serving ministers, former and serving political appointees from across the country.
While the governor of Cross River State, Senator Prince Bassey Otu led member of his cabinet to the country home of Egbona on Friday for the wake keep, his deputy, Peter Odey and the immediate past deputy governor, Prof Ivara Esu visited on Sunday, and also attended the thanksgiving service at the Assemblies of God Church, Ekureku.
Some of the top political leaders who attended the funeral were the speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, a former Senator Liyel Imoke, Ebonyi State governor, Francis Nwifuru, the minister of sports, Senator John Owan Enoh, a former gubernatorial candidate of the PDP, Senator Sandy Onor, among others.
Even though the PDP and the APC do not agree on certain critical issues, leaders and members of the two parties were present at the burial and comfortably bonded, throwing banters at each other.
The burial also provided an opportunity for Imoke to visit the home of Egbona, his former chief of staff, for the first time. Imoke did not just attend the funeral service, he joined in escorting the remains of Egbona’s mother to the graveside and remained there until the last drop of sand was dropped at the tomb, before joining the MP back to the venue of the funeral service.
The former governor who was everywhere at the burial, also took a seat beside Egbona on the family tent.
While there, he also followed Egbona at the field to wave at the crowd in appreciation for the massive attendance and support. When Imoke took over the microphone, he spoke about Egbona and his late mum in glowing terms.
He described Egbona as someone with good character and declared him the leader of Abi Local Government. He even made a prophetic declaration of some sort, that Egbona will continually make progress in his political journey because of his style of leadership, humility, generosity and selflessness.
