Why Educationist, Basil Nnanna Ukegbu Is To Be Buried 8 Years After Demise
The remains of elderstatesman and educationist, Dr Basil Nnanna Ukegbu has been scheduled for burial at Amafor Imerienwe Community in the Ngor Okpala Local Government Area of Imo State on December 30, 2025, eight years after his demise.
The latest interment will be the second funeral ceremony to be organized for the late politician and first republic federal parliamentarian since he passed away in 2017 at a hospital located at the World Bank Area of Owerri, the Imo State capital.
Our correspondent gathered that the family had in 2022 performed traditional burial rites for the deceased after all efforts to retrieve his corpse from his third son, Anthony Ukegbu failed.
Anthony Ukegbu who eventually died in January this year of kidney related ailment had kidnapped and deposited his father’s corpse at an unknown place and requested for a ransom from his siblings.
National Newsbreak gathered that his siblings bluntly refused to accede to his demand, leading to his blunt refusal to surrender the corpse of the late iconic politician and educationist.
Nobody dared forcing Anthony to surrender the mortal remains of his father, a family source said.
Meanwhile, National Newsbreak learnt that Anthony before his own demise lived alone having separated from his wife and his family members.
Our source further revealed that it was upon a search at Anthony’s residence that documents on the place where he deposited the corpse were found, necessitating the present obsequies to commit his body to the earth.
Born in August 1929, Dr Ukegbu served as a Federal Parliamentarian (1959–1966) in Lagos, and was Chief Whip (1965–1966) for his party, the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC), which was a ruling coalition partner in the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He was also the Governorship candidate of the Great Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP) in Imo State during the 1979 general election.
Ukegbu earned a PhD in [Economic] History from the University of London.
He founded Owerri Grammar School (OGS), Imerienwe in 1958, and later, TEDEM and Dorothy Colleges, also in Imerienwe.
