A two-year relationship between a U.K-based Nigerian, Emmanuel, and a Caribbean lady which was supposed to end in marriage in June this year has ended abruptly with the whereabouts of the prospective groom unknown after a visit to the country. Lekan Otufodunrin reports
Initially it was supposed to be a case of a fiancée missing in transit. Rachael from a Caribbean Island whose Nigerian fiancée, one Emmanuel Adebanjo, travelled home to Nigeria from his United Kingdom base to see his mother suddenly became incommunicado.
The last time she heard from Emmanuel who she usually communicated with every day before his sudden disappearance was in February. All her attempts to contact Emmanuel who she was supposed to get married to in June this year after two years of courtship failed. “I had a phone number for which just rings without anyone responding,” she recalls.
Just when she began to panic about Emmanuel’s fate, she started getting messages from some “relatives” of her husband to be claiming that Emmanuel was involved in an accident a day after he arrived Nigeria and he was the sole survivor.
The “cousins” refused to give Rachael the name of the hospital where Emmanuel was being treated and other information to locate or speak with him because they said she was not yet known to the family. They claimed they were trying to raise money for Emmanuel’s treatment after selling some of his property and asked how Rachael was willing to assist them.
In an email to ST the cousins wrote: “Hello madam, you have to be patient until we can get back to you… We have not told his mother about what happened to Emmanuel because she will be so devastated with shock and only close family members are informed.
“We are making arrangement for him to be flown back to the UK, but the financial side of it is yet to be concluded. You have not visited Nigeria before, hence no member of the family knows nor ever seen you before. So we cannot release him to your care. Our hope lies on the fact that the moment he is able to get better, we will ensure he speak with you and he will decide if he will come direct to you or to the UK. Have a blessed week and God bless you. Kunle.”
Although she had reasons to suspect that the cousins may be scammers, she found it difficult to believe that Emmanuel could be part of the scheme.
“I know him well. He has nothing to gain by trying to scam me because he knows I am not a rich person”
In her search for information on Emmanuel’s whereabouts, Rachael reached out on the phone to someone he had introduced to her as an uncle in Nigeria. In their first telephone conversation, the uncle said he had not heard from Emmanuel for some time and was not aware if he was involved in any accident since he is not sure he was in Nigeria.
The only home address ST had for Emmanuel in Nigeria, was 41-43, Ashabi Cole, Agidingbi Road, Ikeja, Lagos which turned out not to be none existing. The street was none residential.
Much later when Rachael told the uncle she was going to hire a private investigator to fish out Emmanuel, he called the following day to say that Emmanuel was in the UK and had an accident, was not working, had no job and was embarrassed of his situation and could not face her.
With the hide and seek now over and Emmanuel still incommunicado, Rachael, family members and friends are shocked at the turn of events.
“This is a man who was coming back and forth to our country over a period of two years- something is still amiss to me here- while here he met my family, friends, boss, church priest, etc helped my children paint the house, and more- he was a very mild mannered, polite, calm, but always on the computer – I wonder if his resume was in fact legit- it was very long and detailed- should have had a job easily with that.
“Everyone of my friends are shocked, the men who met him tell me they are depressed because they all can’t believe it. It is not a regular thing for us here to run into this type of thing or people. All I can say that he is lucky my father is not alive. He had a lot of contacts. I am not sure if Emmanuel would have been able to hide from him,” Rechael said.
Rachael and Emmanuel had known each other through a Nigerian for about two years and he usually visits the Island from his UK base staying about a month each time.
According to Rachael, “when he came here it was not to do anything, but to get to know one another better- you cannot have a long distance relationship with someone unless someone goes to visit the other person often before taking it to the next step.
“I thought it better for him to come here around my people to check him out – and they all thought he was a great person – who knows – so when he came here we went to the beach swimming, concerts, movies, church, family get – together, he even went to my class to help me get ready for the beginning of the school year in September – I mean he just fit in with everyone.”
For now there has been no word from Emmanuel or his uncle and cousin.
“I have not heard a peep from anyone – but I can see someone coming and going off line on Yahoo Messenger, but they have not made any further contact and neither have I. It is almost as if he has dropped off the face of the earth- or so he wants me to think.”
The chain of events still seems like a bad dream for Rachael, but she is glad she didn’t get married to Emmanuel before finding out about his true identity.
“We live and learn – but suppose we had married? He would then have had access to much more than he would by this act, so I appreciate God spared me that. Always look for the silver lining in any situation,” Rachael said.
