IJEGUN (Lagos) – Rev. Fr. Anthony Okeke of Saints (SS) Joachim and Anne Catholic Church, Ijegun-Ikotun, Lagos, has extolled the virtues of the late Dame Remi Oyo, describing her as the “milk of motherly kindness and care“.
Okeke said this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday after the requiem mass held for the late Oyo at the SS Joachim and Anne Catholic Church, Ijegun-Ikotun, Lagos.
The cleric said that the passing away of the late Oyo was a great loss to the church, even “as we cannot question God, but to give thanks for a resourceful life“.
“She was like a mother to all of us here; she was a woman who carried all of us and who saw us as her children and treated us as one.
“She was a very wonderful woman and really a Christian to the core; when I mean a Christian I mean a Christian in action and in words.
“She was a woman, who really showed love to all parishioners; nobody went to her without her putting a smile in such a person’s heart.
“Many families can feed today because of her goodwill. In this parish she gave more than 30 people work.
“And she is being honoured today because we miss her. She was instrumental to building the Church you are seeing here.
“She was really a wonderful woman; all of us pray and wish that she was alive today,“ he said.
Okeke prayed that the Almighty God would bless her soul and grant her eternal rest.
Also speaking, Mr Isaac Ighure, the Editor-in-Chief/Executive Director, Editorial Services, NAN, extolled the virtues of the late Oyo.
He said that when she was appointed Managing Director of the agency in 2007, she repositioned it from the “sorry and moribund state“ she met it to a structure with functional equipment.
“She took over as the Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in July 2007; NAN was practically moribund all the facilities the agency required were not there.
“Even the structures, buildings that journalists needed to operate from were not there.
“At the Lagos headquarters, the buildings we had were temporary structures dating back to FESTAC 77.
“So they were truly, truly derelict but she picked up the gauntlet, she saw it as a challenge to turn the place around and she didn’t just turn the place around all the old buildings were pulled down.
“And she came up with new buildings.
“And she didn’t do that in Lagos alone, she also did in the state offices where NAN had no building; about 26 or about 29 of them, she put up new structures unique to NAN,“ he said. (NAN)