By Valentine Amanze, Online Editor
Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, has offers condolences to the people of Arochukwu Kingdom in Abia State on the death of their monarch, Aro of Arochukwu, Mazi Ogbonnaya Okoro, CFR.
Aged 89, the Eze Aro ascended the throne in 1995 and reigned for 25 years.
The president, through a statement issued by Special Adviser to the President
(Media and Publicity), Femi Adesina, described the Eze Aro as a nationalist, statesman, selfless first class traditional ruler “whose valued contributions in upholding the Arochukwu culture, Igbo tradition and values as an important part of our nation building cannot be easily quantified.”
Buhari, however, lamented that Nigeria has lost an elder statesman, an academic and renowned nationalist, who led the Aros in Nigeria and around the world with great vision for the past 25 years.
The president on behalf of the Federal Government and Nigerians conveyed sympathy to the Aro people at home and in the Diaspora, and to the government and people of Abia State.
He prayed that the soul of Mazi Ogbonnaya Okoro, the pioneer head of Department of Laboratory Technology at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, rests in peace, while urging God to comfort all those that mourn him.