After several days of speculation, the President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Prof. George Obiozor, has been confirmed dead.
He was aged 80 years.
Imo State Governor, Sen. Hope Uzodimma, who confirmed the passing of the the former diplomat in a statement yesterday, said Obiozor’s death is a monumental loss to the country.
He said he was sorrowfully announcing “the passage of a great son of Imo State and Nigeria….A renowned academic, an exceptional diplomat and statesman and a tenacious patriot, …(who) passed on recently after a brief illness.”
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Governor Uzodimma said that “the death of this foremost Igbo leader and former Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United States and the State of Israel, is a big loss to Imo state, the South East and the entire Nigeria.
“I have no doubt that both Nigeria and the international community will miss his profound intellectual contributions and wise counsel on national and global issues.
“His burial arrangements will be announced in due course by the family.
“May his great and gentle soul rest in peace,” he concluded.
Obiozor is said to have died in a hospital in Imo State, where he was being treated fir Blood Pressure-related ailments.
Many believe the octogenarian never really recovered from the shock of the attack on his country home by unknown assailants earlier in the year.
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Before his death, the one time Director- General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) was said to have called close friends to hint them on the seriousness of his health situation.
The resultant inferno from the attack had consumed
the edifice which housed Obiozor’s library, where he had curated several collections of books he had collected all through his life and career, both in public and private service
