While Mrs. Charity Nwaoha’s lifeless body is lying stone cold
in a mortuary, the people she left behind; her husband and
relations are going for each other’s throat.
Her relations are accusing her husband, Mr. Amaechi Nwaoha
of being responsible for her death, a charge he denied. He said
that he loved his wife of 18 years and could not have had a
hand in her death.
Charity died on July 29 in a private clinic, Oluwatosin Clinic
at Fagbile Estate, Phase 3, Ijegun, Lagos.
She was a staffer of the defunct Nigeria- Arab Bank, and
resigned in 2003, when she delved into business until her
death.
For 18 years, they were living together while Amaechi did not
pay the bride price or performed any traditional marriage rite,
until 2012, when they formalised the relationship at a local
government marriage registry.
Charity’s elder brother, Mr. Emmanuel Uduma Ezera, who
lives in Abuja, told Saturday Sun, how Amaechi allegedly
plotted the death of his sister.
According to him, when Amaechi saw that Charity was making
a huge success in her business after she left banking job, he
shielded her from her relations, who found it hard having
access to her.
Emmanuel said that at about 10.15 am, last July 29, his
phone rang and he picked it, the caller said he was Amaechi,
his brother-in-law.
“I said, Amaechi, I hope heaven is not falling for you to
remember that somebody like me existed.”
Emmanuel said he made that comment because for a very
long time he had not called him nor any member of their
family.
Emmanuel said, Amaechi dropped the bombshell, and said: “I
just want to tell you that your sister is dead.”
“I berated him, and asked him, so you are so foolish that you
have to break such news in that uncivilised manner, couldn’t
you have applied courtesy in breaking such news?
“I told him that he has finally executed his plans of
eliminating her. ”
Continuing, Emmanuel said: “Amaechi told him that Charity
woke up in the morning and after her breakfast, she went back
to the bedroom, while he was in the living room with a visitor,
called Tunde. After a while, he heard her screaming, and
rushed into the room, and noticed that she was breathing
heavily. According to him, he called Tunde to assist him take
her to their car, and they went to the clinic.
“At the clinic, the doctor said she had high blood pressure
(HBP), and she was administered with valium injection, and
from there she became unconscious. She was pregnant.
“As at the time he called me to break that news, my sister
was not yet dead, she was unconscious, and from that time,
Amaechi refused to pick my calls. I called one of our relations,
Sister Rose Edematie, who lives in Lagos to intimate her of
what was going on, she told me that Amaechi had called her
and she was on her way to the clinic. She got there at about
12pm. I called her to give me situation report, and she told
me that there was still a little life left in her, and I asked her
to give Amaechi her phone since he was no longer picking my
calls, and she did.
“ I told Amaechi to rush her to Isolo General Hospital, where
proper medical attention would be given to her. He told me
that my sister wouldn’t want to go to any other hospital; that
it is the clinic she always wanted to attend wherever she was
sick. I asked him, how could somebody who was unconscious
determine the hospital she should be taken to, yet he refused
to take her to the general hospital at Isolo. Even when the
proprietress of the clinic advised him to do that, he said
there was no car, even it was Charity’s Mazda MPV wagon
car he used to bring her to the clinic. Finally, she gave up
the ghost before 1pm.
“While she was not yet dead, the husband had already started
making arrangement for motor hearse to take her corpse
home. The vehicle, I learnt, arrived at about 1.30 pm, to
convey her corpse home. I warned him not to try that, but he
should deposit it at the Isolo General Hospital Mortuary, until I
come the following day.
While her corpse was in the vehicle, headed for the mortuary,
as part of his plans, he told Sister Rose to join another vehicle
that was also accompanying them to the mortuary.
“ On their way, the driver of the vehicle carrying our relation
delayed so much on the way and by the time they got to the
mortuary, the motor hearse driver had procured death
certificate and doctor’s report and they left for Umuahia, Abia
State that evening with the corpse.
“I arrived Lagos from Abuja, the following day, being July 30.
Surprisingly, he picked my call, and by then he had deposited
Charity’s corpse at a mortuary in his village, and he told me
that he would return on Sunday, August 2.
“Equally, Sister Rose and I went to the clinic where she died.
The proprietress told us that when my sister’s condition
became critical, they told her husband to take her to the
general hospital, but he was giving one flimsy excuse or the
other until she passed on.
“So, when Amaechi returned, we went to his house several
times and didn’t see him. Even he refused to keep
appointment and was avoiding us.
“On August 5, we went and reported the matter at Isheri-Osun
police division, and the following day, the matter was
transferred to the Special Criminal Investigation Bureau, Panti,
Yaba.
“The officer in charge of homicide at Panti was very furious
with the shady manner the police from Isheri-Osun presented
the matter. The case file was empty. They asked the
Investigating Police Officer (IPO) for the doctor’s report, the
death certificate and the photograph of the deceased. None of
these was in the file. They asked them to go back and
produce these necessary documents.
“Amaechi has not even done the introduction, which is a
prelude to other traditional marriage rites but about three
years ago, we heard they had gone to a marriage registry.”
Emmanuel said Amaechi allegedly killed her in order to convert
her property.
“She has three houses at Ijegun and some plots of land. When
we were calling Amaechi for a meeting, he said we are coming
for our sister’s property and stressed that nothing shall get to
us. We are not even thinking in that direction. We just wanted
an explanation over our sister’s death.”
[BY VINCENT KALU, Daily Sun]