Agony of A Widow

Alhaja Adejoke Orenaike

Nothing could be more harrowing than losing one’s husband, and being driven out of the matrimonial home. But the ensuing drama was even more gruesome than she had imagined.

Alhaja Adejoke Orenaike, a widow at 36, was at the center of the whole issue in a polygamous home. Eight days after her husband died, her co-wife and step son sent her out of her matrimonial home. As if that was not enough, her sister in-law attacked her with a knife. She managed to shove her off and she ran out of the house with her 8-year-old daughter who was screaming for help. According to her, all her husband estates, properties, chains of businesses have been seized by her step son who has also threatened to kill her if she lay claim to any property.

Adejoke who narrated her story to Saturday Vanguard:

“My husband died on the 5th of May, 2013 after a protracted illness. Before his death, there were insinuations and revelations, according to my husband that my co-wife was plotting to kill him. My husband asked her but she denied. But after his death, events began to unfold which gave credence to the earlier suspicion. On the 8th day prayer rite, two members of the family came to the house with some hoodlums and sent me and my daughter out of the house.

I was severely beaten and stabbed with a kitchen knife when I visited my husband’s house to celebrate the Muslim festival, Ileya.”

“I had sent my daughter on an errand and on her way back, when one of them began to rain curses on her I stepped out to know what was happening. As if they were waiting for me to step out, they gave me the beating of my life. It got to a point that my child had to run out to seek assistance when my husband’s fellow wife brought out knife and stabbed me around my buttocks and wounded me in the mouth.

“One of the them thereafter threatened to burn the house if we did not leave the house at that point. So, I ran out of the house and he did not allow me take anything, not even a pin. This was the same house I was living with my husband before his demise. This destablised my business and my daughter’s education to a large extent.

“I mourned my husband for four months and 11days not in my matrimonial home but where I was squatting after they sent me and my daughter out of the house, just eight days after the death of my husband. It was during this time that I gathered that one of the members of the family had sold the house I was living with my husband. He packed my belongings to my shop which was built in front of the house with some of my valuables still missing.

 

Orenaike's

“However, when I discovered some of my belongings were missing, I informed some elders from my husband’s family. They asked him but he denied taking them. The elders told me to exercise patience, saying that they would resolve the matter one year after my husband’s death. They even asked him why he sold the house but he told them that it was not their business.

“Right now, I cannot access any property of my husband. It is so with his business. He used to have three bank accounts with First Bank, Diamond and Union banks. His brother has taken over everything including cash mostly in foreign currencies.

“Along the line, my husband’s relatives tried their best to settle the bickering but one of my step sons refused bluntly. He thereafter threatened to kill me or kidnap my daughter. He said I could share his father’s property with them (himself and his other siblings) just because I have a female child for his late father.

Adejoke agreed that her husband’s inability to prepare a Will before his death caused this bickering. She stated that the head of the family had warned that sharing of property should wait until after a year but he chose to have his way. “They said sharing of my husband’s property should wait till after a year but he declined and chose to sell my husband’s property.

When Saturday Vanguard contacted her step son on phone for his comment, he said: “This is a family matter and I am not ready to say anything on that.”

When we asked why Adejoke was treated that way, he declined comment. “I ve told you that I cannot comment on this issue.”

“One of them has threatened to kill me and my child over my husband’s property. My shop has been closed down since the death of my husband for more than a year now. I have petitioned the commissioner of police and our case has been transferred to Panti.

The Police force from Panti searched his house and my international passport and the knife with which his wife used to stab me were found.

Adejoke stated that until the death of their husband, she had a cordial relationship with her co-wife, and her step sons.

“We had a cordial relationship before the death of my husband. In fact we were living together for some time until my husband bought the house which has now been sold. My husband and I left the house when he took ill following the allegation of plotting to kill him through diabolical means. People advised my husband to leave the house and I left with him. My husband and I traveled twice to India for medical attention and on each occasion, neither my co-wife, nor the son who sold the property cared to go with him to India or to know how he was faring.”

She maintained that several truce attempts called by the head of the family, HRM Bola Rahimi, Oba Alarige of Ibi-Ade, Ijebu water side, did not work.

“The royal father is the head of the family and he was the one who trained my husband. He was the one who said we should wait till a year after my husband’s death. When Saturday Vanguard contacted him, the royal father also declined comment but promised to get back to us soon.

Late Sikiru Orenaike was a business man with several properties in Lagos and London. In a letter purportedly written by the deceased while receiving treatment in India, he directed that his properties be shared among his children including Mariam, the 8-year-old daughter and his two wives and other members of the family.

Culled from Saturday Vanguard