By Celestine Okafor (Editor-in-Chief)
The first female governor of Anambra state, Dame Virginia Etiaba, has expressed her condolences over the passage, early in the week, of the wives of Nigeria's first military Head of State and the former Premier of the old Eastern Region, Mrs. Victoria Aguiyi ironsi and Mrs. Adannma Micheal Okpara.
The two former First Ladies of Nigeria and the Eastern Region reportedly passed on on Monday, August 23, 2021, in Abia state. Mrs. Victoria Aguiyi ironsi was the wife of Major General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi Ironsi, Nigeria's first military leader who was assassinated on July 29, 1966, in a perceived counter-coup of January 15, 1966. Mrs. Adannma Okpara was the wife of the popular Premier of the old Eastern Region, Dr. Micheal Okpara, who died in December 1983.
In a statement on Monday personally signed by Dame (Mrs) Virgy Etiaba, she described Mrs. Aguiyi-Ironsi and Mrs. Okpara as "finest ladies" who played great roles in ensuring that their late elder statesman husbands and former leaders in Nigeria exhibited quintessential leadership roles which "remains a case study material till tomorrow".
Mrs. Etiaba however expressed her elation in paying what she described as her "humble tribute to two of these most distinguished Ladies of this era, Lady Victoria Aguiyi Ironsi and Lady Adannma Okpara.
The former Anambra deputy governor and later governor, also added that "without any shadow of a doubt, both lived a fulfilled and graceful lives, and proudly survived by their great children, several grand and great-grandchildren of note.
"Both distinguished Ladies having left indelible footprints on the sand of time, have now left this world to eternity in a blaze of glory. I pray therefore that they have now found everlasting peace in the bosom of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen!", Dame Etiaba stated. NNL.
