… He was taller in death – Labour minister
The remains of Mr. Godwin Obi Okafor, maternal uncle of Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, will be interred, today, at Umuagu village, Nnobi in Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State.
In a statement by the minister’s media assistant, Nwachukwu Obidiwe, Okafor, who was an accomplished civil engineer, died on August 27, 2016 in the United States of America and belonged to the first generation technocrats from the South East, having graduated from the University of Ibadan in 1961.
Born 82 years ago, he attended the famous Christ the King College, Onitsha and had his postgraduate education at the University of Southampton, England from 1961 to 1963.
He will be remembered for landmark edifices such as the design and supervision of Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre, London and Weymouth Fire Station and in 1963, the reconstruction of Odo Ona Bridge, supervision of Ijora Mechanical Workshop (1965).
He later became senior resident engineer for the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing in Benin City, Edo State and equally contributed immensely to the reconstruction of the East Central State after the civil war where he developed three volumes of report on War Devastation in the zone.
In his tribute, Senator Ngige described Okafor as a man who left his foot steps in the sands of time, “who stands taller in death.” Ngige added that Okafor’s exit has forced all that knew him to “start taking good stock of who and what you were to all of us.”