Directors and staff members of EkoCorp, owners of Eko Hospital, at the weekend, relived the life and times of one of the founders of the hospital, Dr. Augustine Amaechi Abidia Obiora, who died on August 22, 2021, aged 85.

At a service of songs held in his honour at the hospital premises, the workers poured tributes on the great surgeon, who along with Dr. Sonny Kuku and the late Dr. Alexander Eneli, founded the hospital 45 years ago with its name coined from their acronyms EKO (Eneli, Kuku, Obiora).

Leading the tributes, the hospital’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Adegbite Ogunmokun, described Obiora as a father figure, a man of high esteem and a workaholic. “He had virtues worthy of emulation,” he added.

A Director of the hospital, Dr. Goeffrey Ohen Jnr, said Obiora was a pillar whose works would not be forgotten.

Recalling the good times they had together, the hospital’s Head of Surgery, Mr. James Ajayi, a former school mate of Obiora, noted that he was caring, and frank, adding that best his colleagues could do to Obiora’s memory was to keep the hospital going.

Mr. Hanson Nyong, head of Laboratory, who has worked in the hospital for 30 years, noted that beyond medicine, their late boss loved his tradition, and lived a modest life.

In his sermon the General Overseer, Elohim Pentecostal Power Bible Ministry, Apostle Lawrence Chukwudi Udenze, urged Nigerians to be born again, warning that all human beings would either die or be raptured and thereafter meet God, where they would be expected to give account of their lives.

The late Dr. Obiora’s wife Obiageli thanked the staff members for holding the event. She affirmed the commitment of her late husband to the hospital, which she described as his baby. Obiora will be buried in January, next year in his home town Onitsha, where he is a Chief. (The Nation)