The remains of Comrade Adibe Emenyeonu being lowered to the earth at his country home , Obibiezena, Owerri North Local Govt Area of Imo State on Friday, 12th December, 2025.
Tears and wailing pervaded the pastoral community of Obibiezena in Owerri North Local Governemnt Area of Imo state on Friday as the remains of the Mr. Adibe Augustine Emenyonu, the Edo State correspondent of the Thisday Newspapers Limited were committed to mother earth.
The entire community stood still with many wailing as dignitaries , family members, friends, professional colleagues and sympathisers gathered in somber mood to pay their last respect to the deceased media icon who slumped and died in the wee hours of Saturday, October 18, 2023.
Emenyonu, aged 62 years, was survived by his wife, four daughters, a 93-year-old mother a brother and other relations.
The Edo State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), led by Comrade Festus Alekhen, had earlier on Wednesday, December 10, 2025, held a solemn lying-in-state ceremony for the deceased before his body was taken by relations to Obibiezena community.
On Friday morning, deceased’s body was earlier brought to his personal house in Umuogida kindred, Emeke village in Obibiezena Community, where his kinsmen, professional colleagues led by the Chairman, Correspondents Chapel, Edo State NUJ, Comrade Patrick Ochoga, and other sympathisers paid their last respect to him.
An elaborate funeral mass was later held at Sant Mary’s Catholic Parish in Obibiezena Community.
In his homily at the funeral mass, the Parish Priest, Rev. Father Jude Godwins, said that the faith of Christian faithful rests in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
He urged the faithful and the bereaved family to take solace in the fact that late Augustine Adibe Emenyonu was
a God -fearing Christian while on earth.The cleric advised the people to live lives worthy of emulation as Jesus Christ, pointing out that through the death of Jesus Christ, the believers who had died shall be restored to life.
According to him, on the last day the Lord and his Angels shall use trumpets to wake all those who were died in faith and those who had faith and believe in him would love forever in glory in his Heavenly kingdom.
The cleric maintained that there is resurrection and it’s for those who have faith and believed in God, adding that “we are privileged group of believers as Christians for the life God gave us at creation.”
Rev. Father Jude Godwins prayed God to grant forgiveness to the late Emenyonu through the sacrifice of his forgiveness of the sins of his people and death on the Coss of Calvary.
He called for special prayers for the repose of the soul of the dead and asked the entire grieving family of Emenyonu and his community to be consoled by the good life of their late son Augustine.
At the end of the mass the remains of late journalist, were committed into mother earth at about 12:20 pm amidst wailing and tears at his Obibiezena country home, as his wife and children performed the dust-to-dust rite.
Speaking at the occasion, the Chairman of Edo NUJ Correspondents Chapel, Ochoga, described the deceased as “a devoted family man.”
“We are naturally pained that Oga Adibe is no more. But we are more consoled by the memories he left behind. He was a good man, a good and devoted family man. Of a Adibe lived and toiled for his beautiful daughters. He spares nothing at ensuring that his children got good education. That memory of devotion will remain indelible in our hearts.” Ochoga eulogised.
