The remains of Nigeria\u2019s legendary boxer and former national coach, Obisia Nwakpa, have seemingly been abandoned in a Lagos morgue for five months, as his grieving widow struggles to raise funds for his burial.<\/p>\n
Nwakpa, once celebrated as Africa\u2019s boxing pride and Nigeria\u2019s national boxing coach, nicknamed the Golden Glove, died in Lagos on June 3, 2025, aged 75, after years of ill health.<\/p>\n
In an emotion-laden interview, his widow, Madam Franca Nwakpa, told reporters that the family had spent over N9 million in hospitals across Lagos and beyond before his death, leaving them completely drained.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sickness exhausted everything we had. Now, even the burial has become impossible.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis body has been in the mortuary for months because I can\u2019t afford to continue paying the bills or transport him home for burial,\u201d she said tearfully.<\/p>\n
Madam Franca said she had written several letters to the Federal Ministry of Sports Development, the Nigerian Boxing Board of Control (NBB of C), and the National Olympic Committee (NOC), appealing for support, but received no response.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is heartbreaking that after serving Nigeria for over 40 years, as a boxer, a national coach, and an international representative, no one has reached out.<\/p>\n
\u201cObisia brought glory to this country. He won gold, raised champions, and gave his best to Nigerian sports. Yet, in death, he is forgotten,\u201d she lamented<\/p>\n
She recalled that her late husband nearly won a world title before losing narrowly to Saoul Mamby in Lagos, a fight still remembered by boxing fans across Africa.<\/p>\n
Having lost hope of federal help, Madam Franca said she turned to Abia State, where Nwakpa hailed from, Okpulukwu Umosu village in Isiala Ngwa North LGA, but the response so far has been slow.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been travelling to Umuahia at great cost, meeting with the Commissioner and Director of Sports.
\u201cThey promised to reach Governor Alex Otti, who is known for his compassion. I am pleading with him to intervene,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
According to her, the cost of keeping the body in the morgue has risen to nearly N2 million, while the overall funeral expenses remain far beyond her means.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never believed Nigerian sports authorities could abandon Obisia like this,\u201d she sobbed, adding: \u201che gave his life to boxing and mentored many who are still active today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Madam Franca appealed to Governor Otti and friends of her late husband to help her lay him to rest by November 2025, as she originally planned.<\/p>\n
\u201cObisia should not be left abandoned in death.
\u201cHe made Nigeria proud; he made Abia proud. All I ask is for help to give him a dignified farewell,\u201d she pleaded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The remains of Nigeria\u2019s legendary boxer and former national coach, Obisia Nwakpa, have seemingly been abandoned in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,130674,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-212805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-obisia-nwakpa","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}