By OKECHUKWU KESHI UKEGBU

The Executive Director, Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), Mr. Okechukwu Nwanguma, has described the demise of Owerri-based pro-democracy activist and human rights lawyer, Barr. Uche Wisdom Durueke, as devastating.

Durueke died on Thursday May 14 at the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri from injuries sustained from domestic fire incident.

Nwanguma, in a statement, noted that the news hit him with “a devastating suddenness and benumbing shock.”

According to him, “Words are not enough to adequately convey the enormity of my grief. Durueke was my friend and comrade of over two decades. He was also my boss at the Civil Liberties Organization (CLO). He was the Chairman of the Southeast Zonal Management Committee while I was the Zonal Director, in Enugu, between 2001 and 2004.

“I met Uche Wisdom Durueke, lawyer, committed human rights activist and pro-democracy campaigner, soccer enthusiast and ardent Christian, far back in the early 90s in my early days at the CLO. But we became more acquainted from about 2001 upon my relocation to Enugu as the Zonal Director of the CLO, Southeast Zone.

“By virtue of being the Chairman of the Zonal Management Committee for the Southeast, Durueke was also a member of the Board of Governors of the CLO. He was elected Vice President with Titus Mann as President and later succeeded Mann as President.”

Nwanguma further described the deceased as a brilliant, humble, amiable, humorous, humane, principled, reliable personality, who was committed to the struggle for social justice.