Yesterday, I published a story on David Ukre, a young man from Warri City in Delta State who got married to his gay partner, Eric T. Shoen in New York.
The news caused a great commotion among the Warri community on my Facebook page and I’ve been fielding a lot of questions since then. Some find the name ‘Ukre’ to be strange and not belonging to any of the ethnic tribes in Warri, while others denied outright that he’s an indigene of the city.
In the midst of the commotion, one reader who is a family friend to the Ukres and knew David as a little boy growing put a call through to his elder brother. I’m told David’s real name is David Umukoro-Ukre and that his brother almost died of shock as the news was broken to him. David is the youngest child/boy in his family.
My source told me,
“Hello Peace. He’s Warri born, and raised, I know his elder brothers, also just got a call from a close friend of his elder brother. He’s [David’s brother] as pained as everyone, he’s in shock, and thought for a second it was a joke,
He’s [David] also from a good Christian home.
I don’t think his parents know, I know for sure the parents wouldn’t accept it, and wouldn’t want to pose that question to his brother whom we lost contact many years ago.
The dude [David] was still very young the last time I saw him in Warri. His real name is David Umukoro-Ukre.”
Another reader of Peace Ben Williams Blog from Warri told me,
“Peace, the Ukre boys were popular in Warri back then. I think their mum was a nurse in SPDC way back. They all look alike.”
The people of Warri still perceive homosexual relationships as an abominable sacrilege. Little wonder, David hid the news from his family.
The news has been received with great bitterness and denial, ever since it broke. A few of the reactions from Warri community…
