-As alleged “Prodigal Son” disappears With tally
-Family In Disarray Over Share Of Property
Nearly three years (2 years and 8 months to be precise) after the demise of a foremost elder statesman, one of the pioneer educationist, human rights activist, ace politician and former GNPP governorship candidate, Dr Basil Nnanna Ukaegbu, founder of Imerienwe Grammar School and later Tedem College for Boys and Dorothy College for Girls, as well as the founder of Tedem University, his remains are reportedly decomposing and rotting away in an unknown mortuary, as one of the sons, said to be in possession of the mortuary tally has since disappeared into oblivion, and the children of the deceased are in court, scrambling over his property.
The ugly situation seems impossible to solve as efforts of elders and leaders of the Imerienwe community in Ngor/Okpala LGA to resolve the impasse and inter the bones of one of the men that gave the area fame have proved abortive as the particular location of the corpse of Dr Basil Nnanna Ukaegbu, now remains unknown to the people and the surviving wife, has the least idea.
Source close to the family disclosed that when Dr Ukaegbu, who had four children by his late wife, (a daughter and three sons) died after a protracted illness, his last son, Anthony Ukaegbu, who was around at the time, carried his body and deposited in the mortuary and took away the mortuary tally with an ulterior motive to demand a pound of flesh from his siblings.
His brothers, Hector and Kenneth, who were resident in the United States of America (USA) came home and made arrangement for befitting burial of their father, only to be allegedly confronted with a ransom demand from Anthony Ukaegbu, of the sum of N10 million before he would release the mortuary tally for anyone to have access or claim the body. As Hector (the first son) could not afford the demanded sum, Anthony disappeared into thin air with the tally.
Though the three young men and their sister were children of same mother, wife of late Dr Nnanna Ukaegbu, the three young men were still struggling for the man’s wealth and property, while their father’s corpse remains in the mortuary, where it rots away.
Another family source revealed that when Dr. Ukaegbu became very sick with loss of memory, his second son, Dr Kenneth Ukaegbu, allegedly ejected everyone including his father’s second wife and her own children from the school compound, where the family had resided then and took over the school to which he engaged one of his aunts to manage.
It was not quite long before parents and guardians of the children began to withdraw their children and wards from the school. Thereafter, Dr Kenneth Ukaegbu took ill and died.
Sympathizers and observers had thought that with the death of Dr Kenneth, the remaining Ukaegbu’s children would have closed ranks, rather the situation got worst. Hector and Anthony intensified claims to their father’s property while leaving the man abandoned in the mortuary.
Attempts by leaders, elders and notable indigenes to wade in and resolve the impasse proved abortive.
Our source revealed that when villagers visited the hospital at Emekuku, where the corpse was deposited, they discovered that the corpse had been removed and the last son, incommunicado while a mortuary source revealed that after 2 years and 8 months, the body had started decomposing as the young man with the mortuary tally has not been paying the necessary fees.
Efforts to reach Anthony Ukaegbu to get his reaction on the sordid story proved abortive as his telephone line was unavailable.
