The burial of the former governor of old Abia State, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, has been fixed for November 8, 2024.
This was contained in the programme released by the burial committee on behalf of Onu’s family of Uburu Ohaozara LGA, Ebonyi State.
Onu died on April 11, 2024, after a brief illness, at the age of 73 years.
An engineer, author, and foremost Nigerian politician, he was the first elected civilian governor of Abia State, the first chairman of the Conference of Nigerian Elected Governors and the National Chairman of the All Nigerian People’s Party, ANPP, in 2010.
Onu successfully led his party to the merger of All Nigerian Peoples Party, ANPP, Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, a block of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, and a block of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to form what is today known as the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Onu, who in his lifetime was Minister of Science and Technology, also earned the national honour of Commander of the Order of Niger, CON.
A statement signed on Tuesday by former Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim and immediate past Minister of Transportation Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi outlined the burial committee’s order of funeral rites.
According to the statement, A Night of Tributes is scheduled to hold at the Musa Yar’ Adua Centre, Abuja, by 5 pm on November 4, 2024.
A requiem mass at the Church of Assumption, Asokoro, Abuja, by 5 pm, follows the next day, November 5.
Thereafter, the programme shifts to Abia State, where his body will be lying in state at Abia State Executive Council Chambers by 11 am. A Day of Tributes will also hold at the International Conference Centre, Umuahia, at 1 pm on November 6.
The lying-in-state continues the next day at noon in Ebonyi, at the State Executive Chamber, and will be followed by a requiem mass and wake at his home country, Uburu, by 5 pm.
The burial will conclude with a funeral service and interment at Uburu, in Ohaozara LGA, Ebonyi State, on November 8 at 11 am.
