The Aba Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ACCIMA) a city chamber has described as shocking the news of the death of two of its executive members, namely, Anthony Enukeme, chairman, Tonimas Group of Companies and Alex Adaelu, managing director Chemlap Nigeria Limited.
Enukeme, who died in June 2020, was a past president and one of the patrons of the chamber, while Adaelu was before his death, which also occurred in June, the vice president, Trade and Investment of ACCIMA.
Laurence Obetta, president, ACCIMA, in an interview with BusinessDay at the chamber’s secretariat, on Umuimo road, Aba, described the news of the death of the Chamber’s two executive members, as shocking.
“It was a kind of news that none of us was expecting to hear in the next 15 to 20 years.
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“Enukeme (Onuwo) was one of our patrons, a philanthropist and a pillar of Aba business community and the entire South-East and Nigeria, as a whole.
“He was a man with a large heart, a man who can forgo his own happiness to help others. He saw so many people through school and helped many people to set up businesses.
“People are yet to come to terms with the news of his death. People, who saw him two or three days before his death said he didn’t look sick.
“But we know that the world we are in, people can fall sick in one or two days and pass away. So his death was shocking to the chamber and the entire chamber movement in Nigeria.
He however observed that Enukeme, died like a saint. “He died like a saint and that is what he is, by the grace of God.
“The chamber movement in Nigeria will miss him greatly. His immediate family, his staff, people he helped will miss him greatly. His death has created a big vacuum, but it is only God that can raise somebody within the family that can fill the vacuum his death has created.
“St Johns’ International, Owerri, which he was the grand patron will miss him, his local church will also miss him. Are you aware that Onowu built a church in his village? So, it is only God that can help the family to fill the vacuum his death has created.
“I am also sure that his children have the capacity to fill the vacuum that his death has created because he trained them well.
“Death is inevitable and must come to each and every one of us, one day”, he stated.
He consoled his wife, children, and immediate family members and urged them to see his death as a transition.
On the late Alex Adaelu, Obetta described him as, a man of many parts, a philanthropist, somebody that the chamber relied on for so many things.
He stated that Adaelu, was a humble nice man, who affected lives positively, stressing that his humility was incomparable.
He prayed to God to console his immediate family, especially his father, who was a former President of ACCIMA.
Alex Adaelu, who was in his mid-50s, died of cardiac arrest.
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