Three weeks after the late Socrates of the Supreme Court, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, was buried at his country home in Oguta Local Government Area of Imo State, his eldest son, Charles Oputa, has confessed he is yet to get over his death.
Speaking to QED in a brief telephone chat on Friday morning, the 63-year-old entertainer popularly known as Charly Boy said “I did not know I was this close to my father. I still get emotional over him and I am yet to get over his death.”
The controversial artiste who caused a stir at the Requiem Mass for his father at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Oguta on June 27, 2014 when he stopped Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, from making a speech at the event also told this newspaper that his life will never be the same again.
It will be recalled that Charly Boy attended the funeral dressed in Buddhist attire with his now famous virgins in tow.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, who represented President Goodluck Jonathan, had just delivered his principal’s condolence message when Okorocha was called to deliver his own speech.
Reacting swiftly thereto, Charly Boy got up and snatched the microphone from Okorocha’s hands retorting angrily that no politician would be allowed to take advantage of his father’s burial to score cheap political points.
Even the intervention of the officiating Priest, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah, could not mitigate his anger.
Senior Special Assistant to the Governor (Media), Sam Onwuemeodo, thereafter released a statement which reads: “It is highly regrettable that the son of the late Justice, Mr. Charles Emeka Oputa, aka, Charly Boy threw caution to the wind and turned the church service into a political theatre that saw him acting or playing out the script he drafted in Abuja with some Imo politicians who have remained cowed by the overwhelming popularity of Governor Rochas Okorocha.
“The Imo State governor had worked together with Mr. Charly Boy both when the late Justice was sick (sic), until the time he died and the preparation for the burial which also encouraged the State Governor to make substantial financial input and also organised a special day of tribute for the late Justice at the expense of state government with Charly Boy also present with other members of the family.
“This is why the sudden change of character of Charly Boy at the church service, in which case, he insisted that the governor would not talk as protocol demanded could not be understood, except that he was acting out the script handed over to him by some of the gubernatorial aspirants from the State who might have been rattled by the thunderous ovation that greeted the governor by the crowd when he was first introduced.”
The Areafada, as Charly Boy also likes to be called later said in his own statement that “there is no ill feeling between me and His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Imo State, Owelle Rochas Okorocha (SAM). I did not snatch microphone from him, no such thing happened at all.
“I do not put out as portrayed by these news reports; I believe I am a very cultured individual, not one to rubbish a good gesture.”
