Sports | Exposed: Siblings of late Imo boxer, Igboanugo turns Oliver twist
Exposed: Siblings of late Imo boxer, Igboanugo turns Oliver twist
The siblings of the late Imo boxer Chukwuemeka Igboanugo who died in active service during the 2020 National sports festival in Delta state, has voiced out their demand for more aid from the government irrespective of what has been done to support the immediate family and parents of the deceased.
Recall that the late boxer died immediately after his bout at the festival in Asaba and ever since his death, the Imo government through the sports ministry has taken full control of the welfare of his immediate families and also his burial.
The Statesman Newspaper sports desk learnt that immediately after the death of late Igboanugo, the commissioner of sports Honourable Emeka Okoronkwo moved into action by providing funds for the family so the body will be transported back to Imo state and deposited to Aladinma Mortuary Owerri.
Late Chukwuemeka Igboanugo was immortalized by the sports ministry when they named the new boxing ring at the indoor sports hall after him.
The government provided funds for the family’s welfare and also provided additional funds for the father’s hospital bills who we later learnt was bedridden with stroke.
The didn’t stop there, the Imo state government also brought an engineer that helped renovated the shabby looking house to look presentable and habitable ahead of the burial.
The Imo state government also went ahead to take care of the mortuary accumulated bills, provided ambulance for movement of the corpse, provided coffin worth over 120,000 Naira, provided Canopies, chairs, tables and sound system for the burial, made flex banners and posters, provided two bags of rice for the burial as well as N370,000 Naira for drinks and cooking for the burial.
The government didn’t stop there, to the parents, the sum of N500,000 was given to the parents to cushion the effects of the loss financially, while the young widow was given the sum of 1 million Naira to start up a little business and in addendum provided her with a Job at the local government secretariat.
Finally late Igboanugo was blessed with 4 children, two boys and two girls. The government has pledged to fund the children’s education up to the University level.
After the burial the sum of N200,000 Naira was also sent to the family for reasons yet to be confirmed.
But inspite of all this kind gestures by the government, the family of the late boxer still demands for more and are all out to take advantage of the situation to milk the government of funds.
In an exclusive interview with Statesman newspaper correspondent on the day of the burial , the younger brother and the only surviving son, Emmanuel Ekene Igboanugo said;
“ I’m not satisfied with what is going on, how can they give us only 2 bags of rice and N370,000 to cook for burial? It is too small. The only thing they did for this burial was to provide canopy, chairs, ambulance, coffin and so on but the money allocated won’t do anything. We had to manage to come up with what you see today. Look at the windows they installed here , the windows are not quality windows and the window comes without net. I even told them to open bore hole for us because there is no water here, we had to go to a long distance to fetch water. Infact all the water we have been using since we came back from the burial, we paid for it, so i pleaded for borehole but they didn’t provide.
This house is not fenced so i asked them to fence it for us and put gate so the children can be locked in and kept intact but none of this request was answered.... “ Ekene fired on.
While Ekene was still blotting out his opinion, one of the elder sister Chioma Igboanugo added her own voice to the conversation, She said; “ This is not fair , look at this house, i roofed this house by myself and put all the doors with my money, the government only put the ceiling, added the windows and plastered the house. Look at my father he has been lying here with stroke since after Chukwuemeka’s death. He can’t even stand up and we have been spending money on him.” Chioma said as she stormed out.
After this report, the statesman newspaper went ahead to dig deep in it’s bid to investigate this claims by the family by calling the commissioner for Youth, Sports and social development, Honourable Emeka Okoronkwo, and in the phone conversation, the commissioner told the Statesman Newspaper correspondent;
“ What i want to assure you is that everything i told the press that the government did to honour the late boxer and help the family was done, ranging from the burial plans , mortuary bills, renovation of the house and job for the widow, education for the children, N500,000 Naira for the parents and N1 million Naira for the widow. We did all this things and even more, the family can’t deny that.” Okoronkwo said.
Our correspondent asked the commissioner, “when you mean more, can you give us details of what you mean by more and he responded.
“ We started funding the family immediately after the death of Igboanugo including hospital bills for the father. You can go and verify from the parents. Before the father had that stroke, we used to send money to the family through the father’s account ranging from 100,000 Naira to 50,000 Naira. But after the stroke we started sending money to the mother’s account. We sent the mother N100,000 to transfer the husband to another hospital and also sent another N100,000 to the widow for up keep before the burial. After that i still sent up to N150,000 Naira split on three different occasions to the mother, all this i sent through the sports director, you can call him and verify.
The total amount send to the family before the burial arrangements was around the range of N500,000 Naira or more, I have the records.
During the burial, we gave them two bags of rice and N370,000 which was contained in the list they gave to us for food and drinks. We provided everything, coffin which cost about N120,000, ambulance, poster, flex, canopy chair, sound system, renovated the house and we gave the parents another N500,000 and then the Widow we gave N1 Million to start a business. We went further to facilitate her employment at the local government secretariat. We will also send the children to school untill they graduate from the University and this order according to his Excellency senator Hope Uzodimma, will continue rolling even after this present administration leaves office.
Our main concern and focus is on the widow, the parents and the children which we have successfully covered through this moves. Infact after the burial, we have also sent the family another N200,000. You can call the mother and verify all this, or the sports director. The house was renovated by the engineer from our ministry and i provided seven doors, added modern ceiling, put all the windows and tiled the floor, painted the house which was a virgin wall, because the house wasn’t habitable when we went there to see the family“ Okoronkwo concluded.
As a follow up to the ongoing fact finding process, our correspondent made a phone call to Igboanugo’s younger brother who happens to be the only surviving son of the family, Ekene Igboanugo and this following conversation ensued between our correspondent and Ekene;
Correspondent: Good day, i called in respect of the interview you granted us the other day during your brother’s burial. We reached out to the sports commissioner as a follow up to your claims.
Ekene: what did they say?
Correspondent: The commissioner told us that money was sent to your parents prior to the burial which amounts to about N500,000. N100,000 each for the widow and to your mother’s account while N50,000 was sent three times. Is this true, can you confirm to us if your family received such money???
Ekene: Yes my mother and the widow received that money and i was told about it.
Correspondent: can you confirm that the government took charge of all burial arrangements funding, which includes, canopy, chairs, coffin, ambulance, flex, poster, food drinks , music ... from beginning to end ?
Ekene: yes they provided everything except the vest the family wore on the day of the burial, my sister bought the vest and printed it.
Correspondent: can you confirm that additional N500,000 was given to your parents through your mother’s account and 1 Million Naira was given to the widow.
Ekene: yes they gave us that but 1 million won’t be enough, what can 1 million Naira provide in this era of inflation. The money in question , we have used it to feed. Because my family, my sisters and all their family members came home and since after the burial, we have been using the money to sustain. We have barely 600k remaining from that 1 million.
Correspondent: You confirmed initially that the government provided all the windows, how many doors did the government provide in that renovated house?
Ekene: The government provided about seven doors.
Correspondent: But your sister told us previously that she provided all the doors.
Ekene: She brought in some doors before the government engineer came, and then the government provided the remaining. But my point is that we need fence in this compound and the borehole we had to go and even pay for the water we have been using. How long we will continue to buy water.
Correspondent: Is the government mandated to do a borehole for you and provide water?
Ekene: Yes they are supposed to do so.
Correspondent: According to the report from the government, there is no provision for borehole and it wasn’t mentioned in the commissioner’s report either.
Ekene: why not, where we used to fetch water in this village is very far, they can help us do it, they are capable.
Correspondent: That will be a whole new request which you have to properly appeal officially, it has nothing to do with Igboanugo’s death so lets move on. Now Mr Ekene, are you aware the government has made arrangements to provide the widow with a Job and also carter for the Children’s school untill university level?
Ekene: That was what i heard and we hope they stick to it because I don’t trust all this government promises. As i speak to you now, I’m here with my mother and as the only son, the responsibility of the widow’s welfare and the children now falls on me. According to tradition.
Correspondent: But if the government is taking care of the children’s education through scholarships and also taking care of their feeding by providing the widow with a Job and money to start business, what other role will you be playing as a custodian who inherited this responsibility?
Ekene: what about clothes? Even at that, i will still have to be providing one way or the other that’s why i want this borehole done. If the government can at least give me some money to buy at least a keke bus so i can be driving and making money to take care of my parents as well.
Correspondent: so in other words you want more??? Have you appreciated the government for the bit they have done before asking for more??
Ekene: I appreciate what they have done so far but it’s not by force to help me but i still want them to do more at least for me personally
Correspondent: so now you are talking about your self and not the family now, (Jokingly) Are you now Oliver twist who demands for more, because at this point no amount will ever be enough.
Ekene: you can tag it what you like but let the government just assist me, we need more from them.
Correspondent: Anyway thank you for your time, we will call it a wrap now. If there will be any need , we will contact you again in future for any confirmations if need be.
Ekene: No problem. Thank you for your concern.
And that was how the conversation ended. From the above fact findings we will leave it here for the readers to draw their conclusions. Further updates will be communicated on our subsequent editions of the statesman newspaper sports desk.
