The Tide Staff Buried Amidst Tears

The remains of a staff of the Rivers State Newspaper Corporation, Port Harcourt publishers of The Tide, Mr. Emmanuel Emenyonu, aged 59, have been buried at his home town, Eziobodo, Imo State.

Until his death last February 17, late Emenyonu was of the Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) unit of the corporation.

Mourners including his colleagues and members of the Deeper Life Bible Church, wailed profusely and paid glowing tributes to late Emenyonu during the funeral service.

The Pastor of the Deeper Life Bible Church who preached at the funeral service took his sermon from 1Thessalonian 4: 13-18 and described death as inevitable. “When the hour, the day, the moment comes and when it is decreed that your end has come, there is no escaping or running away from it,” he said.  He added that death was an obligation and a war that no one could be discharged from.

He also stressed that the late Emenyonu had “some good plans, good wishes for his family, friends and the church just like those of us who had come from far and near to mourn his death, but he was not able to actualise them before death struck.”

He enjoined all, especially the wicked to amend their evil ways before it would be too late.

In an emotion-laden tribute, the chairman of the National Union of Civil Service Secretarial and Stenographic Workers (NUCSSASW), Comrade Paul Aaloga said, “death is wicked, having snatched our colleague, who was fondly called by some of us as “Auter”, “Authentic”, and Dee Emma, from us, his only surviving sister, sick wife and seven children, after a brief illness.”

Susan Serekara-Nwikhana