TheCable

Mrs Uche Ojeh – the woman recently in the news for not seeing the body of her husband, who has been missing since the June 25 Emab Plaza bomb blast –  is planning to hold his funeral.

Mr. Rufus Ojeh was at the scene of the blast but nothing has been heard of him ever since. The couple’s son, Michael, was also caught in the blast, but he escaped with serious injuries.

Ojeh, who has been indoors since the suspected loss of her husband, wants to move on, as every effort to find him has failed, according to her elder son, Chukwudi Ojeh.

“The family is making arrangements for the funeral of my father. My uncle has travelled to the village to make the arrangements,” he said.

“The date of the funeral will be communicated to us. There is nothing we can do after searching for more than a month without finding his corpse.”

Chukwudi said the family had been to the ministry of health to make inquiries about the corpse of Rufus, but the ministry had no useful information for them.

“We have been to the ministry of health countless times to inquire about the corpse of my father, but the ministry has not been able to give us any useful information,” he said.

“We have gone round all the hospitals, and we still have not found him. The ministry says that there are some badly-burnt corpses that have not been identified. They say autopsies will be performed on the bodies, but it is like they don’t have the equipment.

“We were asked to go to the ministry of health to make complaints after searching in hospitals where the dead and the wounded were taken to without finding the body of my father. They even suggested that they might take the corpses abroad for autopsy. The ministry has not given us any concrete answer. It is sad.

He appealed to the government to come to their aid, as there are so many needs they can no longer meet due to the loss of the family’s breadwinner.

“How do we pay the rent?” he asked. “We beg the government to come to our aid.”

Rufus Ojeh is believed to be badly burnt in the blast, considering that his car, which he used as a taxi to earn a living, was also  severely burnt.