Abia State was yesterday thrown into deep mourning and despair following the tragic news of the loss of yet another of her prominent sons, Sir Harley Onuoha.

The retired Permanent Secretary, until his sudden death yesterday morning, was the Chairman of Abia State Civil Service Commission. He died hours after attending a state function in Umuahia, the capital.

Onuoha graced the Town Hall Meeting organised by the Abia State Government at the Michael Okpara Auditorium on Monday as one of the activities to mark Nigeria’s 52^nd Independence Anniversary by the state and was seated at the front row. He was said to have taken ill by 4am yesterday and was rushed to hospital where he gave up the ghost.

Sources said he had complained of having cold during church service last Sunday and was attacked by cough at about 4am yesterday, resulting in his death.

Onuoha is the third prominent Ngwa son to die within three months. The first to die in July was the State Commissioner for Sports, Barrister Matthew Ochiobi, whose heart condition, it was believed, was worsened by the gruesome murder of his younger brother, a promising police officer who was heading the Onitsha, Anambra State unit of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

While Abia was mourning the exit of Ochiobi, Eze Gaius Ihejiamaizu, a first class Ngwa traditional ruler, gave up the ghost in August. Ironically, the royal father was at the time of his demise, the chairman of the Ochiobi Burial Committee set up by the state government.

Just as Abians were recovering from the shocking death of Ihejiamaizu who is yet to be buried, the cold hands death snatched Onuoha, a contemporary of the State Governor, Chief Theodore Orji, in the civil service.

Sources said the late Onuoha and the governor joined the civil service in the old Imo State the same day and also attended the interview for the appointment of an Administrative Secretary for the National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON) now known as Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in which Orji was successful.

News Express reports that the grief-stricken governor, on hearing the devastating news of Onuoha’s death, quickly visited his family in Umuahia.

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