Madam Maria Ochefu, a former first lady of the defunct East Central State (now comprising of Enugu, Anambra, Imo, Abia and Ebonyi States), is dead. She was aged 86 and would have clocked 87 in April. It was gathered that she died in her sleep on Tuesday March 18, 2025. Prior to her death, she was a patient at the Benue State University Teaching Hospital, Makurdi.
An astute entrepreneur and home engineer, she was married to the first military governor of the defunct East Central State Col. Anthony Aboki Ochefu, whose short lived tenure as military governor was memorable owing to his personal charisma, enviable work ethic and admirable soldierly ebullience.
The former first lady was distinguished in her own right. It is to her eternal credit that there now abound the ubiquitous Mammy Markets’ in most military barracks and military settlements across Nigeria. A visionary and founder of the first military specific market, which came to be named after her Mammy (a derivation from her first name) Market.
The name has since caught on like wild fire and has become the sobriquet for all other similar markets across military barracks in Nigeria. Also, paramilitary organisations like the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has long caught on the bug of Mammy Markets at it’s orientation camps scattered all over the country.
Madam Ochefu is survived by children, grandchildren and a host of other relatives. Her children include Professor Yakubu Ochefu, an economic historian, a former Vice Chancellor and later Secretary General of the Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities.
