George Umeh mourns the exit of his friend

A lecturer with Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu Alike Ikwo Comr George Umeh has expressed sadness on the unfortunate demise of his close friend and brother Barr Friday Ogeh PhD who had an accident along Lokoja-Abuja expressway while on his way from Abuja to Abakaliki.

In an emotional ladden post shared on his Facebook handle, the grammarian wrote:

“MY FRIEND IS GONE

I have tried severally to write something here for you but the more I try, the more it looks impossible for me. We were together on Saturday afternoon. We had lengthy discussions and agreed to meet in the evening of the same day. Before we parted ways, you told me that you just remembered that you would be travelling to Abuja for a matter the next day and therefore would want to organise yourself for the journey. That we have to shift the meeting to when you come back. 

Jokingly I told you not to use the roads because you now have kidnap value. I told you that kidnappers know that any PhD holder is a big man and that if they catch you, I won’t come. You replied: if you consume their food for one day, the next day they would release you. We laughed over it and departed, unknown to me that it would be the last.”

“Thursday morning, Barr James called me and asked me to rush to his house, that there was an emergency. I drove straight from where I was to his house. He was alone, crying, weeping, wailing. I got confused. I kept asking him what happened. He mustered the courage to tell me that my friend is gone. He said: Barr Oge is dead. I told him to stop the joke.

“Quickly I called your line and somebody else picked it. He said he was a road safety officer. He told me that the owner of the phone had an accident. I told him to give him the phone let me speak to him. He said it’s unfortunate that he died on the spot. That they are already handing over the whole matter to the police and that I should continue discussions with the police.

“I called your second line and another person picked it. He said he is a police officer and that he would give me the number of the mortician, that your body had been deposited in the morgue and he heard when I was speaking to the road safety officer. I still couldn’t believe it. I got the contact of the mortician, spoke with him and he confirmed it. I still doubted it till I asked him to snap you and send to me. Shortly after, he did. And it was you, my own Barr Dr Friday Eze Oge lying on the floor in the pool of your own blood. I couldn’t behold the sight.”

“Despite these graphic evidence, it was still more like a dream for me. I had to scout for the contact of anybody known to me at Kogi. I couldn’t get any. I quickly asked for such contact on Ngbo Nation platform and Nwede Chinonso Martin-Ede supplied one. I began conversations with him and insisted that he went to that hospital to reconfirm for me. He did and still snapped pictures and sent. It was indeed true that my friend was long gone. Gone away, never to be seen again. Gone out of this wicked world, gone out of the sight of his two small children earlier left by the wife for him to take care of. Gone out of the sight of his two aged parents. Gone away from me, gone away from Barr James, gone away from Comrade Godwin Ezennaya Awoke, gone away from the Passionate Brothers, gone away from his church, gone, gone, gone.”

“Barr Oge spent his life struggling for a better tomorrow but he never saw the tomorrow. He spent time preparing for the future that never came. He spent resources investing in the future but he never enjoyed it. ” 

“Oh my friend! In disbelief of your death, I proposed that certificates should be transferable and inheritable. I proposed that knowledge should be transferable and that human brain should be preserved and passed on from one person to another. Your academic accomplishments, your legal ingenuity, your gentle character, your honest personality, your spirituality, your humane nature and your piety should have all been preserved and transferred to others.”

“Barr Oge, just last December you bagged a PhD and immediately enrolled for another PhD again in another discipline. You told me that after that one, you would relax to enjoy the fruit of your labour. I want to ask: is this how to relax? Is this the enjoyment you mean?”

“Barr, I am yet to tell my mum about it because she won’t stand the shock. She won’t believe that you who came to assist me break the news of the death of her sister to her last November, are no more. She won’t believe that you who brought me and my family back home for the Christmas, are gone. She won’t believe that she won’t hear your jokes again.

She won’t believe it. My mum would be devastated”

“My Counsel,  my Doc, my man, I have been confused since you passed on. I really don’t know what to say but can only ask you not to rest until you have hunted down whoever is responsible for whatever happened to you. 

I usually don’t believe in diabolic powers but I am convinced that your death is not ordinary. Please avenge whatever happened to you. Focus on it till you get justice because you are a lawyer. Fight it to the last point as you studied to the last point.

We shall be down here taking care of your kids. Please be up there at the battle till you conquer eternally whoever conquered you ephemerally”

The death of Barr Friday Ogeh has thrown his friends, family, community and Ngboejeogu into mourning.

When contacted, one of his relatives, Ogayi Nonso Amos described the loss as devastating and unfortunate and prayed God to accept his soul.