In remembrance of the 60 departed angels

BY CHAKA IKENNA CHUKWUMERIJE

Good Morning All,

We the Parents Association (Abuja Branch) of the Jesuit Memorial College, Port-Harcourt are here today, in prayers and remembrance of our dearly departed 60 Angels.

Seventeen years ago — on Saturday, December 10, 2005 — 61 children of the Loyola Jesuit College, Abuja got on a Sosoliso Flight that was bound for Port Harcourt – they were going on their first term break.

Only one student – Kechi Okwuchi – got out of the plane alive; the remaining 60 students, perished as the aircraft slammed into the ground and burst into flames – and the parents and family members, helplessly watched in horror as their precious pearls were burned alive.

There were 110 people aboard that ill-fated flight – many passengers survived the initial impact but died in the resulting fire. Port Harcourt Airport had only one fire truck and no ambulances. Seven survivors were recovered and taken to hospitals, but only two passengers survived – Kechi Okwuchi and Bunmi Amusan.

The majority of those on board were Loyola Jesuit College children aged between 12 – 16 years old who were travelling home for the Christmas holiday. 

Also on the ill-fated flight was the popular televangelist Bimbo Odukoya, pastor of the Fountain of Life Church and also the national president of PENGASSAN, Uche Marcus Okoro, who was returning from a union meeting.

In the words of the president of the Jesuit Memorial College, Fr. Maduabuchi – every arm of every class in LJC had a student in that ill-fated plane and so, when the school resumed the next term, there was an empty seat in every single class!!!

Some families lost two children, one couple – Andy and Ify Ilabor, lost three children – Chuka, Nkem, and Busonma.

The Jesuit Memorial College, Port Harcourt was born out of the ashes of this tragedy and in a fitting tribute to their departed children, the parents of the departed angels said: “If our children are to be fittingly remembered, it cannot be in a memorial of marble or granite.

“It must be a living memorial of other children whose lives become transformed by the values they receive in the memorial school (and) who in turn will make a difference in our world.”

To assuage the pains of the bereaved families and immortalise the 60 angels, the then governor of Riversstate, Dr Peter Odili, graciously accepted the request of the bereaved parents – and seed money and land were given to the Jesuits to begin a Jesuit secondary school in Port Harcourt so that the lives of other children might blossom out of the ashes of their own children.

Thus, in living memorial of the 60 angels, other children would now live out the same ideals in view of which the parents of the former sent them to Loyola Jesuit College. 

This would then be a source of ongoing healing for the bereaved families.

The Jesuit Memorial College is now on twenty-one hectares of land. 

The pioneer class was admitted on October 22, 2013, and graduated on July 21, 2019. The school is open to all children across the world irrespective of religion, ethnicity, nationality, race or gender. 

It is because of these 60 angels that our school exists today and it is the reason why we are gathered here today in their honour and memory. 

Every success recorded by our children stands in commemoration of these 60 angels – whose lives were caught short, but like the mythical phoenix, they perpetually rise from the ashes as they live on eternally through the progress and growth of our children and the school.

Hope Reborn – is the school’s fitting motto!

In close to ten years of its existence, having graduated four classes – and in fidelity to the memory of our dearly departed 60 angels, the school has grown from strength to strength and continues to form men and women of conscience, competence, compassion and commitment. Future leaders who are open to growth, intellectually competent, loving, religious and committed to justice.

Today and always, our thoughts and prayers remain with the 60 angels, their families, our children and the nation and we affirm:

Hope reborn for the 60 angels

Hope reborn for Jesuit Memorial College, Port Harcourt

Hope reborn in all our lives

Hope reborn in our families

Hope reborn in our nation

Hope reborn in our world

Thank you.

Chaka Ikenna Chukwumerije is the chairman, JMC Parents Association (Abuja chapter)