By Chinonso Alozie
Owerri—Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, yesterday, said the Ekeukwu Owerri market and Douglas Road would be renamed after Somtochukwu Ibeanusi, who died during the demolition of the ancestral market
Owerri indigenes at the altar of Maria Assumpta Catholic Cathedral, Owerri, yesterday, as they prayed for the repose of the soul of Somtochukwu Ibeanusi and the wounded in the Ekeukwu Owerri market saga. Photo: Chidi Nkwopara. Okorocha made this statement through a release to newsmen in Owerri, by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Sam Onwuemeodo. However, the governor maintained that the death of the boy was still confusing to him.
According to the statement,“Government has decided to honour Somtochukwu although the boy’s death was confusing because an action can’t be taking place on Douglas Road and the person died at Mbaise Road. “No matter what happened, whatever is the case, since that boy died within that period of liberation, that boy must be honoured. “And for the fact that the whole of Owerri leaders are mourning him, wore black even to Catholic and Anglican churches. If Owerri leaders can mourn a boy from Nnewi, Anambra State, that shows that there is something great about that boy. “So for every activity in that Ekeukwu and Douglas Road, the boy will be honoured, because he died on the day of the event. That boy is more important than any Eke or Afor, Ekeukwu or Ekenta. “So both the Douglas Road and projects to be sited there will be named after the boy, Somtochukwu The project will be named Somtochukwu and the road, Somtochukwu Road, in line with the way all of us are mourning that boy. I will not go back to any deity again by naming it Ekeukwu road. Imo State has gone past that level.”
