- They denied me access to his corpse, refused to bury him
A widow, Christy Nwabudike from Ogwashi Uku, Delta State, has cried out for assistance over alleged dispossession of her inheritance by her late husband’s family members.
In a ‘Save my Soul’ video she made, Christy, a mother of one girl, accused her late husband’s brothers of selling his belongings including houses, while his body remains unburied in the mortuary.
According to the widow, a civil servant in the state, her late husband, Joseph Okay Nwabudike died late last year after battling diabetes.
She said they were married for 27 years and had worked together to own landed property in Lagos, Abuja and Asaba.
Christy explained that her husband died under questionable circumstances in the custody of her in-laws, claiming that they seized all Joseph’s belongings because she did not bear a son for the deceased.
The widow called on all Nigerians, the Inspector General of Police, Women Affairs Commission among other relevant stakeholders to come to her aid and assist in retrieving her husband’s property from her in-laws and to also ensure that they allow her to bury her husband.
“Fellow Nigerians, please come to my aid. Inspector General of Police, please come to my rescue, Nigerian Bar Association please come to my aid, Women Affairs Commission please come to my aid. I am Christy Nwabudike and my late husband’s name is Mr. Joseph Okay Nwabudike. We hail from Ogwashi and we have been married for over 27 years. During this journey of life, we owned property in Lagos, Abuja, and Asaba.
“We have been living happily right from onset, it all happened that in October last year, he fell ill and I rushed him to the hospital, we stayed there for four weeks. My husband was a diabetic patient, we went to Federal Medical Centre, Asaba, and they took care of him. He said he wanted to go home despite the doctor’s advice. He signed himself out and when we came home, we spent three weeks at home and his sister now came and said she wanted to take him to Abuja for treatment.
“Mrs. Rose Ebere, my sister-in-law convinced my husband to follow her to Abuja so that she can treat diabetes. Mrs. Rose Ebere took him to Abuja and we agreed that after two weeks when our daughter finishes the exam, I will come to Abuja and join them. After four days, they were no longer picking my calls. Sometimes, Mrs. Rose will pick and promise to call back when she is with my husband but she will fail. I later called my husband’s younger brother, Nanke Francis Nwabudike, he allowed me to speak with my husband and he was not speaking well and I asked them to rush him to Gwagwalada Hospital and I sent N50, 000. I said they should give me three days that I will come once my daughter finishes the examination but before that time, they called to tell me that my husband is gone.”
The seemingly devastated widow said all her efforts to see her husband’s remains have been futile as her in-laws allegedly deposited his corpse at a morgue and prevented her from accessing it.
She further claimed that, “All my husband’s belongings such as laptop, keys to house, ATM and others, they didn’t release them to me. The next thing they called me that they are selling the house we had at Ikorodu, Lagos, I said how can you sell the house?”
Christy identified one Chinedu Larry Nwabudike, her brother-in-law as the arrowhead of those selling her late husband’s property.
“When he (Chinedu Nwabudike) went to Ikorodu Police Station to get police to eject the tenants, the DPO told him that you are not the owner of the house and neither are you the next of kin, don’t sell the house. But he refused and sold it. He is planning to sell the one in Abuja and Asaba and run away with the money and up till now, my husband has not been buried since November last year. All they care about is the property.
“From November till date, they have not buried my husband. I am a civil servant in Asaba, Delta State and they are saying because I don’t have a son, that my entire husband’s property belongs to the family,” she added.
Meanwhile, a human rights group, Behind Bars, promised to ensure that justice is upheld.
Efforts to reach Chinedu Nwabudike were not successful as his telephone lines were not connected.