A WIDOW CRIES FOR JUSTICE

The earnest prayer of every couple is to bear children and live long to enjoy the fruit of their labour. It is also the prayer of every married woman for God to bless her husband with wealth and allow her to enjoy it with him.

For Mrs. Chioma Odilinye from Umuseti Oligo, Utagba-Uno, in Ndokwa-West Local Government Area of Delta State, God answered these prayers.

Married to Mr. Onyebuchi Odilinye, from Umuodogwu family, in Uru-Eze Alor village, Ogidi, in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State, Chioma prayed that God should bless her husband.

God lifted her husband from grass to grace. From the one-room rented apartment they occupied in 2008, when they were newly married, they moved to their personal house in Ejigbo area of Lagos State. It was a prayer well answered.  However,  if this woman thought that such blessings have no price tag, she lied. Her husband died unceremoniously.

Chioma’s marriage with Onyebuchi, which was traditionally contracted five years ago, on August 16, 2008, was blessed with a three-year-old son. However, the man died mysteriously, making Chioma a widow at the tender age of 26.  Her husband’s death, according to the young widow, is a mystery, especially as it was shrouded in secrecy.













She stated:  “I was only told he (husband) died on October 13, 2012, but since I was not there and considering what had been happening, I needed to see the death certificate to believe. But they could not provide that.”

She is very bitter that when her husband died, the news was hidden from her while her husband’s relatives collected all the original documents, relating to his business from her before she was informed. She is angry that in the midst of plenty, she and her kid are in want. Her husband was rich. He had a flourishing transport business, with seven trailer trucks in its fleet. He had a landed property as well as a Toyota Highlander Jeep; yet his wife and only son are in want.

The genesis
Chioma alleged that her husband and one of his brothers had a problem when she was being married. She said her husband and a  brother were not the best of friends because the deceased got married before his brother.
She stated: “He didn’t attend my marriage. I was even told that the day they came to marry me, he was chasing people around with cutlass before they left for my village but at the end of the day, they
still came and the marriage rites were performed.  So, since after our traditional marriage, he has been nursing deep hatred and animosity for my husband for marrying before him.


Although my husband was aware of his hatred towards him, he still did not severe his relationship with him completely. He only kept him at arm’s length but gave financial assistance to him any time he needed it. He was the one that bought a bus for him, which he now uses for commercial purposes. It was my husband that still gave him money with which he married his wife two years after we were married.”

The sickness
She said her husband and his brother maintained a tepid relationship until her husband was diagnosed of cancer of the liver. Narrating what happened, she said: “My husband had an operation in July 2011 and from then he had series of health challenges. So, he went back to the hospital at Ogidi, where the first operation was done and he was referred to the teaching hospital, Nnewi, where he was diagnosed of cancer of the liver. He was referred to a hospital managed by Indians in Abuja.
“When he heard that my husband was sick, he came to our house with a younger sister, to plead that my husband should forgive them for all they had done to him. My husband forgave them and accepted them back with all his heart.  Having forgiven them, they starting coming to our house frequently. Meanwhile, before the peace talks, I was not in talking terms with the woman because when I was pregnant with my first child, who died, she was always fighting me. We were all living in the same area that time. We lived in a one-room apartment at the dustbin area, back of Access Bank, Coconut Bus Stop,  before we left for Alhaji Wasiu Street, Oke-Afa, from where we moved into our own house. We were still living at Oke-Afa when my husband fell ill.

“We were all living as one family when the issue of Abuja hospital arose. My husband even suggested that his brother went with us but the man argued that it would be better if I stayed behind to take proper care of my baby and also to conclude the prayer I started in the church. When I insisted, he assured me that he would take proper care of my husband and that I should not worry. So, I stayed while two of them left for the Indian hospital in Abuja. When they got there, my husband called and told me that they had been referred to India because the equipment to carry out the operation were not available at the hospital in Abuja. He also told me that he had arranged to embark on the trip.
“On the day they left for India, he called me and told me that I would not get him on his phone any longer, as they were prepared to leave for India. This was happening at the beginning of September 2012. I was very happy that, at least, the solution to his problem had come at last. When they landed at the hospital in India, my husband still called me to inform me that they had arrived safely. He told me that I shouldn’t call him the following day, as the operation would be carried out that day. On the second day, he called me to inform me that the operation had been successfully carried and that he was okay. He told me that he no longer felt any pain in his body and that in three days time they would come back to Nigeria. I was very elated to the point that I even started calling the pastors that had been praying with me to give them the good news.

“After the three days and I didn’t hear anything from him, I called his Indian number but his brother picked the phone and told me that they were at the airport. I was surprised and asked what happened. He cut the call abruptly. I called again severally but he refused to pick. I kept trying for the next two days without any success. On the third day, he picked the call and told me that they were in Abuja. All these were happening in September 2012. So, I asked him what they were doing in Abuja again and  asked that he gave the phone to my husband so I could talk to him but he refused. He told me I could not talk to him because the doctor said he was in a coma. I was surprised and I asked him what happened. They just came back from India where my husband was certified all right; how come they were at a hospital in Abuja again and without informing me? Does it mean the Indian doctors that certified him okay before they came back didn’t know what they did?
“I kept calling him, on a daily basis, until after about two weeks when he stopped picking my calls. I became confused and in my confusion, I resorted to calling my husband’s people back in the village to know if any of them had any knowledge of what had happened but nobody seemed to know the whereabouts of my husband and his brother.”

How they collected his property from me
Chioma stated that while she was still worried about the whereabouts of her husband, his in-laws deceitfully collected documents, relating to her husband’s business. She stated: “As I was still making efforts to establish contact, I got a visit where they demanded the original papers of all my husband’s seven trailer trucks. They told me they were seized by the police and unless the original papers were produced, the vehicles would not be released. I remembered that when my husband was in charge, he used to take original papers to the police any time any of the trucks was seized. I called my husband’s phone and his brother picked. I told him to give the phone to my husband so I could talk to him on a personal matter but he insisted that I told him what the matter was. When I wasn’t telling him what the matter was, he asked if it was in connection with what I was told about the vehicles and the original papers and I said, yes. He told me to release the papers because it was my husband’s directive and more over that I didn’t know anything about trailer business. At that point, I didn’t know what to do any more; so, I gave the original papers to them.

“About two weeks after they collected the papers from me, one of their maternal uncles came to our house. The sisters also came. I was surprised because those people had never been to our house. While they were there,  my mother called and asked if anything happened because one of my husband’s uncles just called and asked her to meet with them in my house. I told her that nobody had told me anything. People were just coming in and as soon as my mother arrived, they broke the sad news that my husband was dead. I fainted. This was happening at the beginning of November.”

Burial arrangement without my knowledge
She said they went ahead to plan her husband’s burial without her knowledge. She alleged that one of her husband’s paternal uncles in the village was the person that informed her of the burial arrangement. The burial took place but other issues came up.

 “One month after the burial, they summoned me and asked me about all the people that owed my husband. I told them everything I knew. They then sent somebody to me to bring the document of our house in Lagos, saying the papers would be kept by my mother-in-law. I told them that I was not with the papers, as I left them in Lagos. We were locked in the room for three days. We cooked and ate inside the room. We would defecate and urinate inside a plastic container and give to people to pour away for us for those three days.”






Daily Sun contacts Chioma’s brother-in-law

When one of Chioma’s brothers-in-law was contacted, he refused to speak. As soon as our reporter introduced himself, he switched off. Subsequent calls to his phone were rejected, prompting our reporter to send a text message: “Good evening. My name is Sunday Ani and I am calling from The Sun Newspapers. I want you to react to what Mrs. Chioma Odilinye came to our office to tell us. The right thing is to give you the opportunity of telling your own side of the story so that we don’t report only what the woman has said. I only want to balance the story; so, please, pick your call. Thank you.”
After an hour or two, several calls were again put through to him but he kept rejecting them. The following text message was again sent to him: “It will not be good to report what the woman said without your own side but if that is what you want, it’s alright.”
When another brother was contacted and confronted with Chioma’s allegation that he deceitfully collected documents of her late husband’s property from her, he said: “I don’t know what you are talking about. I don’t know Chioma Odilinye.”

When Chioma’s sister-in-law was confronted, she said: “Don’t mind her. How did I threaten her – by mouth or weapon or what? You would have asked her.”
When reminded that it was an oral threat, she again said: “You need to know the truth. I will give you some instances and you can go there and verify because I don’t have much to say. Why I am taking this matter lightly with her is because she has a child for my late brother; if not so, I won’t accept all this rubbish from her. I have just decided to overlook everything because of my late brother and the child involved. If not so, I won’t accept all the insult and assault, both official and unofficial. But I am just bearing it for the sake of God. I don’t have time for her.”

“Let her go ahead and be saying whatever she likes but I know that it is only God that will judge. I don’t have the time to be telling people a lie when I know what I am doing is right. All I know is that when people are talking about you, ensure that you are on the right track. If I start telling you what happened, you will even have pity on us but let the sleeping dog lie.”

When she was told that her  brother refused to speak to our reporter, she said: “See, leave the woman; let her continue until she is satisfied because even if you publish this one, another will still come up. So, let her continue. This matter did not start now; it started from somewhere. This lady has taken us to Panti and Alagbon police formations, accusing us of killing our brother but after investigation, the police officers saw that our hands were clean and we won the case. So, leave her; let her continue. We just want to calm down and be looking at her. This issue is a very long story. As we just keep quiet, let her continue until she is satisfied. All I know is that truth must prevail. We don’t want to rush but Nigerians will know the truth.”

Legal angle
When Chioma’s legal counsel, Mr. Emeka Ugwuonye, was contacted on phone and asked to comment on Chioma’s chances of reclaiming her husband’s property from her in-laws, considering the fact that she was neither married in the court nor in the church, he said: “First and foremost, we have to enforce her fundamental human rights against the degrading treatment before going for letter of administration. Whoever gets the letter of administration is the one that has the property and it is the woman that will get it. She will get every property of her husband back from them. They don’t know that they cannot transfer the ownership to themselves by themselves; they have to go to the court to get the letter of administration to be able to do that.”

He brightened the widow’s chances when he said: “First and foremost, there is what we call constructive trust in law. She was the homemaker and the man was the businessman. Under the principle of constructive trust, the man concentrated in the business while the woman concentrated in the house. It is just like the man, coming home one day and demanding for food cooked by the woman and the she tells him, you can’t eat because you didn’t cook with me. No, she can’t say that because cooking food was her own responsibilty while making money was the man’s.”
“The second principle is that the woman was part of the business because she was entrusted to keep the documents of the company. She provided advice to her husband. Her in-laws obtained the documents by trick; so, she has a stake in that business. The property in question are not subject to ownership by possession. There are things you own by possessing them; things like your wrist watch and shoe do not have title document. Nobody would ask you to get your title or registration to show that you own your shoe but if you drive a car, you have to register it. There must be a title document for a car because a person does not own a car just because he is in possession of a car. So, houses, lands, cars and a number of other property are required to have title for you to own them. You cannot change a title just by handing them over to the other person. The man has seven trucks registered in his name, except one that was registered in his child’s name. The only way they can own the property is to go to the court to get letter of administration, which will authorise them to take over.”

The Faces of the late Husband's Relatives terrorizing the poor Widow








The Story is culled from Sun Newspaper
Photo Credit: Ikem Okuhu