There was anxiety in Ebonyi State yesterday when the news filtered in that Governor David Umahi lost his mother, Deaconess Margaret Umahi, who passed on Tuesday morning after a brief illness in Enugu hospital.
 
No official confirmation was madeat press time 5pm but Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Emma Anya, said he heard the news just like every other person.
 
“It’s a family matter. I heard about it just like you. The family has yet to say if, indeed, their matriarch has passed on,” he said.
 
But a family source told The Guardian that the corpse of Deaconess Umahi had been deposited at the Federal Teaching Hospital in Abakaliki.
 
When The Guardian visited the Governor’s Lodge in Abakaliki, top government functionaries were seen moving around the area, just as some of them were signing the condolence register placed beside the portrait of the deceased.
 
Deaconess Umahi’s last appearance in public was during the church service after the governor’s inauguration in June.