Barely ten days to the presentation of Staff of Office and final coronation rites, the Atta Igala, HRM Alaji Mathew Opaluwa has lost his immediate elder brother, Prince Samuel Ogwuche Akpa to death.
Prince Akpa who was reportedly sighted hale and hearty in the palace of the Atta Igala on Sunday, died on Monday evening after suffering a day illness.
The deceased was one of the contestants for the crown with his junior brother, but did not emerge.
“He died in his mid 60s after a day Illness at Idah. The sad event occurred in the evening of Monday the 21st of February 2022”, a source from the palace was quoted by Vanguard.
Our correspondent further gathered that the deceased suffered from a partial stroke before, an illness said to have weakened his succession bid to mount the ancestral stool of his forefathers in the kingdom.
“If not for the stroke attack, he would have succeeded the late Ata Igala, late Micheal Idakwo Ame Oboni who had gone on hunting expedition,” said an elder from the palace.
Until his death on Monday, Sam as he is popularly called was a retired senior staff of Central Bank of Nigeria.
The royal palace is said to be in a mourning mood as insider said an emergency meeting was in the offing to decide the scheduled official staff of office presentation ceremony to the newly crowned Ata Igala which was billed to take place on 4th march.
