Posted by By Chika Abanobi on
What's really in a name? A lot going by incidents that took place during the just concluded murder trial of Chukwuemeka Ezeuko, alias Rev. King. During the trial, Rev. King had, in the course of cross-examination by the prosecution counsel, had it drummed into the ears of the court and the general public that his name was not Emeka.
What's really in a name? A lot going by incidents that took place during the just concluded murder trial of Chukwuemeka Ezeuko, alias Rev. King. During the trial, Rev. King had, in the course of cross-examination by the prosecution counsel, had it drummed into the ears of the court and the general public that his name was not Emeka.
'That was not the name my father gave me," he declared emphatically. In a way, he is correct. His name is Chukwuemeka, but over the years it has come to be shortened into Emeka by friends, acquaintances and relations. Just as you have in other cases of Nigerian names like Bunmi, Kayode, Bisi, Ladi, Raheem, Abdul, etc.
Suspecting that the defence team could exploit that legal flaw to knock the bottom off their carefully built watertight case against Rev. King, the prosecution team quickly asked leave of the court to have his name changed from Rev. Dr. Emeka King to Chukwuemeka Ezeuko.
But Rev. King's name is not the only thing about him that is the subject of dispute. His surname is also a victim of the same misnomer. Is it Ezeugo or Ezeuko? Some writers prefer Ezeugo to Ezeuko. But investigation by the Weekly Spectator shows that the correct one is Ezeuko, not Ezeugo. That is his father's family name in Umulekwe, Achina, in Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State.
King had cause to complain bitterly about this misnomer when he addressed some of his members who came to visit him and to cheer up his spirit at the Ikoyi prisons, at the beginning of his murder trial. 'People talk about my family disowning me," he said. 'How can my family disown me when they are members of CPA till tomorrow?
Even the name they wrote, ‘Ezeugo' is not my name and nobody in the whole town answers that name. The age they wrote in the papers is not my real age. Where exactly I am, they do not know. Some say I am in Kirikiri, others say Ikoyi. If they charge me for murder, they will eventually charge me for 'father" (mischievously referring to murder as 'mother"). What I am charged for does not matter to me because if God lifts me up, nobody can bring me down."