•Seeks police protection to pay final respect to late husband
Even before she opened her mouth to mutter a word, from her entire mien, it was crystal clear that Mrs. Chioma Stephanie Okeke, one of the latest widows in town, is in dire straits.
“My brother, I am in real hell here on earth; welcome to my world of sorrow,” in tears, she welcomed this reporter into her Lagos hideout early on Sunday.
Graveyard silence ruled the whole compound; so it was in the sitting room, where her moving encounter with the reporter lasted about 27 minutes. All through, she tried, but failed to stop her tears.
As the 33-year-old mother of two seethed with rage, her bloodshot eyeballs revealed one fact: That she had lost sleep for a couple of days after the devil came hard on her family on October 8. The bad day, as she put it, was when her 54-year-old businessman husband, Njikoka, Anambra State-born Chukwudi Emmanuel Okeke, died in inscrutable circumstances.
Chioma was born to a Nigerian father from Isiala Ngwa South Local Government Area of Abia State by a Russian mother; they both currently live in the United Kingdom. She is now in the lurch with her two girls – Samanta Nnenne Okeke (2) and Hazel Nkem Okeke (8).
Shaking her head in self-pity, Chioma painfully recalled how her marital life with her late husband was initially fraught with challenges, adding that they only made some headway about a year ago.
“He had nothing when we met about eight years ago. I suffered with Chuky (as she fondly called her late husband). There was a period we could not pay rent. We once lived in a hotel; we were eventually ejected. It was so hard to the extent that we only sealed our wedding at the Magistrate’s Court, Ikoyi, Lagos, on June 25. It is just about a year ago that we made some money, especially from our poultry business. Now, he did not live to enjoy the fruits of his hard labour,” she said in tears.
But why could such a “young” man die suddenly? The reporter asked. “I hate to remember it; it is harrowing. Up till now, I have kept the sad news from our children,” she said, still fighting tears.
She recalled that on September 26, the late Chukwudi reportedly took ill after attending the traditional and white wedding ceremonies of his sister’s daughter at Ogidi in Anambra State and Enugu respectively.
“In fact, I was opposed to his journey home on the wedding day, but he insisted on going. I was told that he took ill immediately after the wedding. It lingered till he was rushed to the hospital by his friend. I rushed down to Enugu from Lagos on October 6. I drove to the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu, where he was admitted. I was with him till he finally gave up. Sadly, it was on his birthday – October 8,” the widow said. As she grapples with the agony of losing her “best friend,” she is face with a more traumatic battle with her husband’s siblings following their discovery that she was his next-of-kin.
“The whole trouble began at the UNTH. My husband’s relations spent over eight hours arguing on who should be his next-of-kin. After breathing his last about 1.30 am, his body could not get to the mortuary until 4 pm that day! His corpse was lying in front of the mortuary while the argument lasted. Later, I knew I was in for more trouble when I was denied access to some of my husband’s belongings at his GRA, Enugu home,” she recalled in tears.
Chioma was later embroiled in confrontations at their GRA residence. She was “harassed and threatened.”
“They connived with the police in Enugu to lock me up twice under very inhuman conditions, claiming that I was not his wife. I was dumbfounded because I personally drove the car my husband bought for his sister when we went to present it to her. Now, they have taken over most of his belongings. I now live in fear. They should allow me to bury my husband in peace. That is what matters to me now, not property. My kids have lost their father. It is very sad. They should allow me to mourn my husband,’’ she appealed.
Saying that she had been warned not to attend the burial of her late husband slated for Saturday in the village, the distraught woman has cried out to the acting Inspector-General of Police, Suleiman Abba and the Commissioner of Police, Enugu State, Mohammed Abubakar, to save her life.
She petitioned the police chief through her lawyer, Festus Keyamo.
“These culprits have been threatening to eliminate our client if she fails to steer clear of her late husband’s property. Some of them were even bold enough to tell her that what happened to her late husband may happen to her. The meaning of this is that they may eliminate her at anytime in order to fully inherit all that she has with her late husband, who is yet to be buried.
“Information reaching our client is to the effect that these individuals are planning to secretly bury her husband and have equally mapped out plans to arrest our client and if possible eliminate her to actualise their grand design. If they succeed in so doing, our client will live with trauma (if at all she survives it) for the rest of her life. It is very obvious to our client that plans to eliminate and stop her from attending her husband’s burial are so real and that these people are capable of actualising their evil plans,” the petition stated.
Keyamo, therefore, urged the police IG to “launch full-scale investigation into the cause of the death of our client’s husband and provide her with full police protection to bury her husband.”
