A prophetess believed to have health challenges has set her flat at Lateef Jakande Estate in Oke-Afa, Isolo, Lagos, ablaze. The incident was said to have happened on her birthday last Thursday.
Her neighbours said she often talked to herself about getting people to come and celebrate her birthday with her.
The emission of thick smoke from Mrs Grace Ukawe’s flat 6, Block 378 was said to have attracted neighbours, who alerted fire fighters. The fire men forced their way into the flat to contain the fire.
Lagos Fire Service Director Rasaq Fadipe said people were already putting out the fire when his men got there.
He advised that aged persons should not be left to live alone.
“The building is a two-bedroom flat with an old woman living in it. We learnt that she was lonely and nobody was with her. So, being old, she might not be mindful of delicate things that could spark fire. We met people there trying to put out the fire; so we assisted them to contain it. People like her should be taken to old people’s home,” he said.
Neighbours claimed that Mrs Ukawe, who retired from a teaching hospital, has been living alone since her last daughter, Mary, went to join her husband a few months ago. The change in her disposition, they said, became apparent in the middle of last year, when “she became hostile, violent and incoherent”. Before the change, they described her as “a classy, attractive woman”.
A neighbour told The Nation that Mrs Ukawe was a prophetess with a white garment church until she became sick.
Her neighbour, Prophet S. I. Robert, who lives opposite her, said the ceiling of his apartment was damaged in an attempt to pass pipe borne water into her room.
The septuagenarian said: “The woman set the house on fire. This is the fourth time she would do this. She was burning clothes inside the room, so the fire caught the ceiling of her room. They had to break my ceiling to spray water on the fire.
“It was with the help of the fire brigade and area boys that we put the fire out. The problem is that she has been sick since last year. Before, she was a very beautiful woman, but a troublemaker. She locked up my cloth and sat in front of my door. I had to change. She has abandoned her cloth outside for the past two months. They really have to take her to the hospital.
“I didn’t lose anything except my ceiling. I will have to call my children and some good people to come and help me because I’m a retired minister of God.”
Another neighbour said: “I don’t know if she was cooking, but it started from the room. This is not the first time. People were not initially around in the building, but those who saw the fire quickly raised the alarm. Many people did not notice she was mentally ill until she started coming out of the flat. She cursed people and sparked at any slight remark.”
A boy in the compound said: “When I heard people shouting in the house, I thought they were fighting until I heard the noise from the fire trucks’ siren. She was just shouting ‘hallelujah’ after the incident. We even thought she would be worried or scared, but she kept going and coming out of the room. Later, she was asking for malt (drink) and some people decided to buy her several cans to calm her because today is her birthday. She drank everything and started throwing the empty cans at us.”
Mary said she ensured regular supply of food to her mother.
She said: “She was behaving like this before. Normally, she was aggressive before the sickness. She is a prophetess. The sickness started last October. It began with swollen legs all through to her stomach. That day I was sleeping in my room when she shouted ‘My leg! My leg!’
“So I went to meet her in the toilet. ‘What happened?’ She said the leg is twisting. I said ‘how?’ She said I should help her massage the leg. I went to bring anointing oil and massaged the leg for her. Three days later, the two legs became swollen, very big. She had been hiding it from me, and I did not even know. I was going to church one Sunday, and I saw it and asked ‘what happened?’ She said the shout that she shouted that day was what gave her swollen legs. I said I would tell my pastor about it and know what to do. So, I showed my pastor the picture and he said I should bring her.
“The following week, I chartered a tricycle and took her to church. The pastor prayed for her and said that after seven days, the swollen leg would lessen. But after seven days, the thing did not change. But I was still taking her to church every Friday to see the pastor. After that, one night, she was doing somehow as if she wanted to die so I told her to come and sleep in my room because she used to sleep in the parlour. But she was not okay. She said I should take her to a Cele church the following morning at Bucknor.
“So the next morning, I called the person I was dating and told him about it. Even though we had a quarrel, because of what I called him for, he rushed down here and we took her to that Cele church. We met the man and he said it is a spiritual attack that it is not normal. So he said we should go and bring N50,000, but I told him I didn’t have that kind of money.
“Eventually, he said I should bring N15,000. So, my fiancé paid. They started treating her and giving her herbal things in the church throughout that October-December period. There was a time the man said there was some bad blood in her body that he had to cut to the tummy. So he used spiritual needle to cut it. From that, the leg started gushing out water and the odour of the water was very bad that the members of the church started complaining. Flies were always perching on the leg and she was always killing them. But I begged the man to continue treating her till she got better.
“So, later, after December 31, last year, the man called me to take my mother back. I asked, why? He said the members are complaining. He said she was well, that we should take her back. So we brought her back to the house. I was always cleaning the house because of the odour.
“The first time I now noticed she was mentally ill was one day when I wanted to sweep the house, I said, ‘mummy, let me sweep that place’. She said ‘no’, that the leg hurt. So she was now cursing and cursing; calling me a witch. Later, I noticed that someone that said the leg was hurting still stood up and moved to another place. So I didn’t say anything. But I thought the hurting in the leg caused that behaviour.
“I didn’t just leave home, my fiancé told me to go to our village to tell my family members. I was the only one staying with her because my sisters have left her since. I lived with her because she is my mother and the one paying my school fees since. I already discussed with my sister who just came back from America that we would take her to Delta State before this now happened.”
She added that her mother told friends that she would celebrate her 56th birthday and that people will gather. She explained that the statement wasn’t clear until that day.
“I didn’t know this was how she wanted to celebrate her birthday,” Mary said.
Her elder sister Hannah told The Nation that she visited the mother on Tuesday to arrange for her care before the fire.
She said: “I have called the doctor and paid them to bring an ambulance that can take her to the psychiatric hospital. I don’t want them to just bundle her out of the place. They will give her sedative and make her sleep. It will be easier to take her away. She can’t stay here again.”
In an encounter with The Nation, Mrs Ukawe, with red beads around her neck, said: “Take my picture now; or are you scared? Haven’t you seen a sick person before? Today is my birthday. I am 56 today. This was the day I was born. Snap me. Snap my legs; let me show you.” As she spoke, she struck a pose in a chair by the entrance of her flat.
