The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun on Tuesday said the death of the late Minister of State for Labour and Employment, James Ocholi (SAN) was a “personal loss” to him.
Odigie-Oyegun said this during a condolence visit to the family of the late Ocholi who died in a ghastly car accident with his wife and son along Kaduna-Abuja Expressway on Sunday, March 6, 2016.
The APC National Chairman was accompanied to the late minister’s Abuja residence by the party’s Deputy National Chairman (South), Engr. Segun Oni; National Secretary, Mai Mala Buni and APC National Treasurer, Alhaji Bala Mohammed Gwagwarwa
Odigie-Oyegun spoke to journalists after meeting with the late minister’s family: “We are here on a condolence visit to the family of James Ocholi who was also the former interim Deputy Legal Adviser to the party whom I had course to consult with often whose thought processes and mine were very very similar.
“It was for me an issue of very deep sadness and made even graver by the fact that his wife and a grown up son also passed in the same incident. So for me it is a very personal loss. And from the point of view of the party, he was ever a dedicated believer in change, dedicated party man because you could call on him anytime.
“He was always in the office over one issue or the other even though he did not have a permanent office table. He was very very dedicated to the course of his people and the people of Kogi State. And at every point I needed help, explanation, or whatever, he was there to provide it, to give me the issues behind. So really, one mourns with sincere, very sincere, deepest form of sorrow even considering the circumstances in which all these have happened and that he has four children who are now fatherless, motherless but like I said, God will be their father, God will be their mother and God will provide sufficiently for them at every stage of their lives.
On the APC plans for the late minister, Odigie-Oyegun said: “Honestly, that will be something we will deal with. It is not something at this stage to give to the press but he was a deserving party member and the party will turn out and honour him in the way hierarchy deserves.”