9 Years After, Akin Recounts Iduwini Born Hero, Chief Second Benikurukuru’s Legacies – The Liberator 

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By Binebai Princewill 

June 20th 2020, makes it exactly 9 years that the Iduwini Kingdom born Hero, Chief Second Benikurukuru sailed to the world of no return, today Engr. Akin Benikurukuru recounts his brother’s legacies. 

Engr. Akin had maintained that he will forever remember Chief Second Benikurukuru as a man with many positive colours while alive, stressing that he may have died 9 years ago but his legacies still lives on.

He stated that Chief Second Benikurukuru died on June 20th 2011 and till date, the vacuum created following his painful and untimely demise is yet to be filled.

In his words: “On this day 2011 will continue to remain one of the saddest day in my life, it is the day a lost a rare icon in my family in the person of my elder brother, late Chief Second Benikurukuru, he meant almost everything to me.

“He was so kind, he was not just my elder brother but was playing the role of a father, my role model, my helper and he was everything to me, till date even in death, I am still indebted to him.

“9 years ago hundreds of people, young and old, from all economic levels and representing a cultural rainbow, gathered in Odimodi, Iduwini Kingdom, Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State 

“They had come to say their last goodbye to a man they admired, a man who had served them for years with his hard earned money without much political office and his moral encouragements, a quiet leader whose voice was always heard when it truly mattered.

“They had come to pay their respects to Chief Second Benikurukuru who died at the age of 44 years. 

“And how strange it was as people sat in Odimodi to think back to a time a little more than some years back  before that moment, to a time when Odimodi, Iduwini Kingdom and indeed the Ijaw nation needed him more.”

Chief Second Benikurukuru, popularly known as Seco-Ben was one of the leaders in the fight for political recognition of Iduwini Kingdom and a serious advocate of good governance. 

People trusted him. They believed he would fight their battles. That he wouldn’t forget his roots, and he never did.

Speaker upon speaker after his demise in the Niger Delta talked of him in terms reserved for those we care deeply about. They talked about a quiet leader who didn’t have to raise his voice to win a point; a leader who always remembered those who chose him as their leader; a leader who could forgive the sins of the past and look to the future and who played best politics by carrying everyone along; a leader who defended his ideas and his ideals with deep passion.

“Goodbye, Chief Second Benikurukuru. Thanks for the wonderful lessons you taught all of us who knew you, especially about forgiveness, I will forever miss you.” Engr. Akin Benikurukuru stated. 


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