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• Gov Soludo, Peter Obi, kinsmen, community mourn
Sorrow and sadness met and mingled on Wednesday, January 14, 2026, when the remains of the Omatu brothers killed in the Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) building fire on Lagos Island were buried.
Weeping and wailing rang out from every corner as the symbolic ashes which were all their kinsmen could bring home for burial were lowered at Nze Omatu Ikwuamaeze’s compound at Umumgboma kindred, Umuarugwu, Uzoakwa in Ihiala, Anambra State.
Crowds of sympathisers who thronged the arena expressed pain and anguish as the burial rites progressed. The mourners were united in their grief – people from all walks of life who gathered to pay their last respects.
Among the mourners were the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election and former governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi; Anambra State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Chief Vincent Ezeaka; member representing Ihiala Federal Constituency, Hon Pascal Akpodike; Chairman of Ihiala Local Government, Anayo Nzeako; the traditional ruler of Ihiala community, Igwe Thomas Obidiegwu, the Oluoha of Ihiala and 20 Catholic priests, among other dignitaries.
The senator representing Anambra South in the Senate, Chief Emma Nwachukwu had visited a day before.
The sympathisers commiserated with the family over the loss of the three young men.
Peter Obi regretted that such a disaster befell the Omatu family.
He said: “We have no power to question God Almighty; He is the one who gives and takes.
“I’m here in person to console you all, particularly the young widows and your children. It is very painful to lose such energetic and promising young men at this time.
“It is very painful. My prayer is for God Almighty to grant then eternal rest in his kingdom and also give the family the fortitude to bear the loss.”
On his part, Chief Ezeaka assured that the state government would assist the family in its grief.
The burial ceremony came on the heels of a funeral Mass said in the Omatu compound. A vigil Mass was held earlier, preceded by a candle light procession organised by the youths of the community to honour their departed brothers.
Sympathisers were particularly pained because none of the victims’ of the December 24 debacle was retrieved and brought for burial. Only ashes believed to be their remains were interned.
Gloom
From the day the disaster occurred, the community had been in deep mourning. Grief and gloom hung thickly everywhere in the area. The people were distraught and it showed.
The feeling in the area paralleled the account of the disaster that swept through Israel’s Biblical Rama in the heyday of King Herod at a time he stepped up the hunt for the new born Baby Jesus.
Our correspondent was told that when news of the victims’ death broke, the residents were deeply saddened. The manner of their sons’ death made things worse. They were deeply agitated as they felt the pain of the loss deep down. They kept reflecting on the agony of their brothers and how they died helpless and hapless.
That is why till this hour, and even in the days to come, many might still be locked in grief while imagining how those three promising men – from the same womb – met their untimely end.
When it was told that the gloom that enveloped Uzoakwa ruined Christmas and New Year celebrations of many, it was easy to understand.
The victims
The Omatu brothers: Stephen Onyeka Omatu, aka Mr Classic, 40, Casmir Nnabuike Omatu, 39, and Collins Kenechukwu Omatu, 37, were cut down in their prime. They had their light extinguished, the sacred chapters of their lives closed. Only their younger brother, Ugochukwu Omatu, survived the deadly fire by a hair’s breadth; his twin brother, Kenechukwu, did not.
Sadly, those they left behind not only lost them, they also lost the life investment they laboured to build while alive; a substantial part of it got gutted by the rampaging fire that blasted off from the pit of hell and wreaked havoc.
Our correspondent gathered that the Omatus were a family of five men. The eldest, Rev Fr Williams Omatu, is working overseas. He carried the hefty cross of organising the burial of his younger siblings. Not one, but three of them in a row died in the manner they did. He also has a sister who was said to have fought real hard to see if her siblings could be rescued. But it all ended futile.
Ihiala community mourns
Recalling what he knew about the ugly incident, the President of Ihiala Progress Union (IPU), Lagos chapter, Steve Mbanugo, said as soon as he was alerted, he sprang into action to see what they could do to save the victims.
“We began mobilising our people because we stand for one another. We made a series of contacts to see who could be useful to us.
“Sadly, on arrival at the scene of the disaster, it dawned on us that they had died.
“When it became safer to go in, our worst fears were confirmed. All we could see were charred bodies everywhere.
“Yes, one of them survived the fire; the eldest is a priest, but I get this chilly feeling that the entire family had been wiped out.
“We are grieving; our hearts are heavy.
“To be honest with you, those deaths tug at our individual consciences,” he said.
C Don Adinuba, former Commissioner for Information in Anambra State who is also from Ihiala, lamented the disaster that befell the community.
“What happened was simply devastating,” he said.
“Many of us didn’t know the victims closely. But the scale of the incident compels a lot of attention.”
He too, informed that the Omatus “were a family of five brothers and a sister. The first I know is a Catholic priest, Fr William Omatu.
“I learnt that the three that died were actively involved in the business. The last, who is the youngest, was saved by Providence.”
Chief Ebulue, former president, IPU, Lagos chapter, sounded broken when spoken to.
“We have never experienced such disaster in our lives before,” he admitted, his voice betraying the grief his heart harboured.
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“Ihiala is in pain. What happened to us was unimaginable.”
Soludo, others mourn
However, the Omatu family and the entire Ihiala were not alone in their grief.
The Anambra State governor Chukwuma Soludo, in a release by his Chief Press Secretary Christian Aburime, entitled “Soludo mourns victims of Lagos Island fire,” commiserated with the family and the community, expressing how “devastated” he was.
He lamented that “those industrious young men who were simply striving to earn an honest living have been taken from us in the most tragic circumstances. Their loss was not just a family tragedy, but a collective loss to Anambra State.”
He thanked the Lagos State government for helping to secure the remains of the victims.
Equally, the Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Minna in Niger State, Most Rev Martins Uzoukwu, reportedly paid a visit to the family days before the burial. He promised to say Masses for the repose of the dead.
Hours before their death
For the Omatus, Christmas Eve dawned bright and fair and without any incident. They said their morning prayers without an inkling it was their very last. They had their bath, reviewed their plans for the day. They had their sight set on the day’s sales. They hit the roads not knowing that death had other plans.
The brothers, it was gathered, traded in shoes and bags which they imported from China. Their goods had just arrived. They were to make Christmas sales and leave the rest of the goods for January.
At GNI that morning, every trader was on top of their game. The victims, it was learnt, had their shops on the second floor.
Sadly, they never knew that the untoward was a mere touching distance away. They were immersed in their business as usual. Then boom; there was fire. Then what happened began to happen.
How they died
It was such a tragic end for the Omatu 3, a death so brutal, so savagely, an ordeal they never bargained for.
It was learnt that until they yielded to the fire, they kept calling for help. None came. In the end, they gave up, scorched by the fury of the fire that raged unforgivingly.
The Lagos State government said nine persons perished in the inferno. But those who knew what went down insist the number was pretty higher.
Reports said the fire started small at about 4 pm. Fire service men arrived about an hour later. There were allegations of money demanded by the fire fighters before action.
Then looking at the scale of the fire, they probably felt small on account of their skill and their tools. They couldn’t quench it..
There was an account of a private fire-fighting firm contracted to join in the fight and see if the victims could be rescued. Sadly, all their efforts ended futile too.
It was also gathered that as tension mounted, the Omatu brothers and every other trader whose investments were going up in smoke were frantic. They scrambled to salvage what they could salvage. It was reasoned that at some point, they got trapped.
Some people believed that when some of the victims realised that they couldn’t access their way down, they raced towards the upper floors hoping for a miracle. But as the fire spread, it kept chasing and caught up with them until they finally fell to its onslaught. The exhaustion that followed and possibly the inhalation of gases emitted contributed to their ordeal.
Family’s effort to save victims
Chief Martins Ebulue told our correspondent that the family pulled all stops to save the situation, confirming that the family possibly hired a private fire-fighting company to stop the fire.
“On the morning of December 26, the services of a fire-fighting outfit were secured to tackle the fire and see if the victims could be rescued alive.
“The men laboured in vain; the more they launched water, the more the fire escalated. They became overwhelmed and gave up.”
Only Omatu ashes brought home
An uncle to the Omatu 3, Chief Basil Ndedigwe, noted that the inferno raged without let for more than seven days.
By the time it had become relatively safer to go in, the victims were already dead. They could not even be recognised. All that could be seen strewed on the floors were charred remains – all bones and no flesh.
Distraught Chief Ndedigwe told the reporter: “The next day, the fire was still burning. So we couldn’t get close; those people inside were still burning. They had been calling their relatives that they were still trapped in the fire, asking if there was any effort to help them until their phones ran down.
“We had no access to the place. So, it was on the night of December 30 that we were able to access the building to try to recover their bodies.
“As we went in, we couldn’t recognise anybody. We could not even see any dead bodies. What we saw were skulls and human bones; there was no flesh. We could not see anything like clothes or flesh. So we couldn’t differentiate them even when there were more than 20 skulls inside. Some had only their skeletons remaining.”
He said all they could pick up were ashes for last Wednesday’s burial.
But why ashes?
Chairman of Umuarugwu family meeting, Maxy Onyilimba, said it was symbolic to take something home to show to their kinsmen as their remains in keeping with tradition.
“We just had to take something home to show to our people. That is our tradition.
“Since the victims were burnt beyond recognition, we didn’t want to carry just any skeleton we saw. So we had to collect ashes close to their shops, presuming those were where they died.”
He too expressed sadness at what happened, informing that one of the victims, Nnabuike, had come all the way from Minna where he lived, but unfortunately died with his brothers.
He described the deceased as “very gentle and hardworking young men determined to succeed.
“They lost both parents early in life. But that did not deter them,” he said.
