The country has been hit by the deaths of two former First Ladies with the passing at the weekend of Mrs. Victoria Nwanyiocha Aguiyi-Ironsi, the widow of the country’s first Military Head of State, and Chief (Mrs.) Adanma Okpara, widow of the First Republic Premier of the Old Eastern Region.
Nigeria’s former First Lady, Victoria Nwanyiocha Aguiyi-Ironsi, the wife of late Nigerian Head of State, Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, died at the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, the Abia State capital, on Monday morning.
She died barely 24 hours after the death of Chief (Mrs.) Adanma Okpara, wife of the First Republic Premier of the defunct Eastern Region, late Dr. Michael Okpara.
Aged 96, Mrs. Okpara died on Sunday morning in an undisclosed hospital in Enugu State.
The Governor of Enugu State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, had, while addressing Catholic Bishops in Enugu, reportedly disclosed the incident and had observed a minute’s silence in her honour.
When reporters visited the Umuegwu Okpuala Afugiri country home of the Okpara family in Umuahia North LGA, her second son, Uzodinma Okpara, was absent.
It was gathered that Uzodinma Okpara had gone to the hospital when reporters called at his home.
Also, several calls to Uzodinma’s phone went unanswered, while text messages to him were not replied.
But an inside source confirmed her death, disclosing that a day earlier, (Saturday), she had gone to a hospital “only to be heard that she died early this (Sunday) morning.”
According to a family source, “Lady Aguiyi-Ironsi died at 4am this morning, Monday August 23, 2021, after a prolonged battle with a mild stroke at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Umuahia, where she was admitted a few days ago.”
Born 21st November 1923, Mrs Victoria Nwanyiocha Aguyi-Ironsi was the country’s second indigenous First Lady from 16th January 1966 to 29 July 1996.
She died on Monday at 97, and would have turned 98 on November 21, 2021.
Her husband, Major General Aguiyi-Ironsi was the Supreme Commander of the national military government for six months before being overthrown and assassinated in the 1966 Nigerian counter-coup, which replaced him with General Yakubu Gowon.
