By ABEL JOHNGOLD
From the Master of Ceremony’s (Comrade Kenneth Obieh) announcement, family, colleagues and associates trooped out en mass to catch a glimpse of the late activist where he was laid in state.
Dignitaries took turns to celebrate the life and times of Kenneth Okoturo as they paid glowing tributes to him.
Speaking at the funeral Service, the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Delta State Council, Comrade Michael Ikeogwu, who said the deceased would forever remain in his heart, called for celebration of the life Okoturo lived. That the famous Delta born Archivist touched the lives of individuals that came around him in one way or the other.
“We are indeed grateful for his life. It is our fervent prayer that the good Lord grant his dearly-beloved family and all of us the fortitude to bear this irreplaceable loss. Please, let us thank God for him.” Ikeogwu noted.
While wailing that members of the NUJ would miss him dearly, Ikeogwu said “You came at a time when we were looking for investors and you volunteered to be part of progress. Unfortunately, you did not live further to finish what you started. NUJ INVESTOR, we miss you”
In his sermon at the funeral Service, the leader of the Officiating Ministers, Pastor Israel Nwaka, Resident Pastor of the Living Faith Church, Asaba, said he was concerned about his spiritual lives of those present because Kenneth Okoturo has lived his own.
The clergy man, who preached and took his Bible Reading from 1 Corinthians 15:40-58 described as a lovely man of peace.
He said “there are also celestial bodies, and terrestrial; but the glory of the Celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
“There is one glory of the Sun, and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in Glory. Do also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption.”
While giving a narrative of how medical personnel gives seductive injections for patients to sleep or not to feel pains to enable them carryout surgery easily but no one gives injection for the patient to wake, the Officiating Minister noted that “Man is a creator of time. Okoturo died in his fifties. He used his life well to glorify life and contribute to humanity.
“Physical death is an exit from this world to the eternal world. Before death came calling, he called on his saviour. He called on Jesus at the most critical time of his life he was about to step out of time to eternity in the hospital.”