Kogi NLC Chairman promises scholarship to Late Journalist’s child

By Correspondent in Lokoja

The Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Kogi chapter, Mr Onu Edoka, has promised to take responsibility for one of the children of broadcaster and journalist, Mrs Lucy Damian, who died on August 3, 2021.

Edoka made the offer at a requiem in honour of the late director/chief editor with Kogi State Broadcasting Corporation (Confluence Radio FM 94.1) at Citadel Holy City Church, on Friday in Lokoja, Kogi.

Edoka, who had earlier made a commitment of N300,000 on behalf of the NLC, said the promise to support one of the children of the deceased for two academic sessions was personal, in view of what the deceased stood for while alive.

He said the late Damian was one of the executive members of the NLC in the state and was humble, intelligent, focused, easy going, but assertive and a thoroughbred professional.

Also, Prof. Roy Marshall Agbo, younger brother of the deceased and Pastor of the church, described his sister as a bundle of humility and lover of God’s word, who did everything to advance the work of God.

He admonished Nigerians to live selflessly and let their lives affect Society positively.

The cleric noted that the deceaseda had to collapse her chair rental business and moved all the chairs to the church in support of the work.

Another cleric, Bishop Abraham Bamidele of Eagle Kingdom Church, Lokoja, described the late journalist as an evangelist.

Bamidele said the deceased was humble and propagated the gospel through her coverage and reportage of various church activities at no cost.

The Bishop prayed God to fill the vacuum created by her demise and also protect and sustain her husband, children, extended family, colleagues and loved ones.

Earlier at the NUJ Press Centre in Lokoja, during the lying-in-state, the Council chairman, Alhaji Adeiza Momoh-Jimoh, described Damian’s death as painful.

Momoh-Jimoh said the late editor celebrated her 50th birthday only 11 days before her death, saying that her dreams would live on as no one could question God.

He prayed for God’s protection and sustenance of the family she left behind.

The Reporters reports that her colleagues, who marched out in their numbers paid their last respect amidst tears before she was taken to the church for the final mass.

Earlier on Wednesday, ActionAid Nigeria, an international Non-Governmental Organisation had convened a “Candle light vigil” in honour of the late journalist in Akwanga, Nasarawa State.

The programme was organised to mourn her, being one of the organisation’s media partners on the System and Structure Strengthening Approach Against Radicalisation to Violent Extremism (SARVE II) project.

At the Funeral service held at citadel Holy City Church, Pastor Chris Okwute of The Blood of the Lamb Ministry, Anyigba admonished Nigerians to live selflessly and let their lives affect their generations positively, remanding them that “the essence of life is to impact and affect others”.

Okwute made the call in his sermon at a requiem in honour of the
late Mrs Lucy Damian, Director and Chief Editor with Kogi State Broadcasting Corporation (Confluence Radio FM 94.1) at the Citadel Holy City Church, on Friday in Lokoja.

The clergyman said the death of Lucy, which occurred on Tuesday, Aug. 3 in Abuja, was a great loss to the Igala nation, Kogi and Nigeria in general.

“I want to say emphatically that we have lost a gem of inestimable value in the person of Sister Lucy who, indeed, is a mother in Israel,” the pastor said.

He said humans were living on “Borrowed Time” and should use the time to affect other lives, adding, “It is not the number of years that a man or a woman spends on earth that matters, but the lives he or she affected.

“Brethren, I want to say that if your life has not affected peoples’ lives, your coming to this world is nothing, empty and useless. The essence of life is one to affect one another.

“Since the life is borrowed and we don’t know when the person that gave us the life will ask for it, we need to ensure that we affects other people’s lives.”

Okwute reiterated that the dead would rise again on the last day; saying, “Lucy is not dead, she is alive. On the resurrection morning, she will rise again.”

He, however, cautioned that on the last day, everyone would be made to render account of his or her life on earth.

“What we did with the life that God gave to us and when your time, my time and our time shall come, what account shall we give the lord?

“The Bible says that every man shall be judged according to his works. The death of our sister is an opportunity for us to reflect on our lives.

“This is because you don’t know who is next and if you know that you are going to die someday, amend and prepare your ways,” he added.

Lucy Damian died on Aug. 3, in a hospital in Abuja.