Controversy over ex-banker’s death

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.”

Stating his own story, Amae­chi debunked the allegation of killing his wife. According to him, they have been living to­gether as husband and wife for over 18 years and they loved each other, and wondered why he would kill her.

He said, like every other couple, they would have disa­greement and later resolved it.

Narrating to Saturday Sun what led to the death of his wife, Amaechi said his wife had goitre and he had taken her to the hos­pital and she refused to take the antibiotics prescribed for her because she was pregnant, as antibiotics are said not to be good for pregnant women.

“On Sunday, July 26, she complained of throat irritation, and the following day, her nostril was blocking as she was having breathing problems. I boiled water, and she applied balm in her nose, and allowed the heat from the water to penetrate her nose and the following day she started sneezing and coughing out mucous membranes and we were happy as the nasal passage was clear­ing.

“On July 29, she woke up about 6.30am, and said she wanted to eat Semovita. She told me that she had appointment with one woman who used to supply her with Chinese Tasely herbal medicine. After her breakfast, I went to our backyard to inspect the chick­ens in our poultry farm. I was there when she called me that somebody was knocking on our door, I came and opened the door for one man called Tunde. The man and I were in the sitting room discussing, while she was in the bed room.

“She screamed, ‘my stomach, my stom­ach’, I rushed in immediately. She was breathing heavily, and I asked her if I should bring hot water, she said no, but cold water. She said I should take her to the hospital. Tunde helped me to take her to the car, and we took her to Olu­watosin Clinic, where she was usually treated. She was very restless by the time we arrived the clinic, and when they checked her blood pressure, it was very high; more than 240.

“When they wanted to infuse drip, they couldn’t locate the veins, and her breathing was getting very bad that they had to press her chest, but the condition didn’t improve. After about 30 minutes, she died.”

Amaechi told Saturday Sun that there was no medication given to her at the clinic, but he had earlier told his brother-in-law, Emmanuel that Charity was given Valium five injection.

On why he didn’t take his wife to hospital seeing that the condition was getting worse, he said he was confused, adding that it was the clinic that his wife loved to attend.

“When she died, I stayed there for over an hour looking at her, and when it dawned on me that she had passed on, I called her elder brother, Emmanuel who lives in Abuja to tell him of the develop­ment. His response was that I have killed his sister, and have finally achieved my aim. I asked him to repeat what he said, he re­peated, saying I have succeeded in killing his sister.”

Continuing, Amaechi said: “I called again and his phone was switched off. So, I called one of their relations, Sister Rose, who lives in Lagos. I also called one of my town’s men, who works in Apapa.

“I equally called my wife’s younger sis­ter who lives in Aba, and she told me that I should start celebration since I have finally killed her sister.”

On his relationship with his in-laws, he said he doesn’t have any problem with them except Emmanuel. According to him, about four years ago, Emmanuel came to their house and was quarrelling with his wife.

Amaechi said they were yet to fulfil the necessary traditional marriage rites, even though they had lived for 18 years.

He said: “In 2002 or 2003, I went with my people to their village, Ndi Uduma Awoke, Ohafia, Abia State, for introduction and they gave a list of what to do. By then, her mother was still alive. We didn’t fulfil any of the rites because the man that stood as her father died and her mother suffered stroke and died later.

“The bride price was never paid, but in 2012, we went to the marriage registry to formalise the marriage.”

On how he procured the death certifi­cate and doctor’s report, which are prereq­uisites for transporting corpses out of Lagos, he said, when she died, Emmanuel called and said that I should go and deposit her at the Isolo General Hospital Mortuary until he comes.

He said the clinic where she died called a doctor who confirmed her dead and issued a doctor’s report. He didn’t say how he ob­tained the death certificate.

“When we got to the mortuary, the cost of embalmment and other services was about N40,000, and I don’t have the money, so I had to take her home where such cost doesn’t exist.”

On the allegation that his wife was wealthy and he killed her to inherit her prop­erty, he said, it was a lie.

“I’m a contractor, I build houses for peo­ple and also run a poultry farm, I also help landowners to sell land and get commission. So, whatever money I got, I gave to her and she added her own for us to plan together. We have only two buildings, a poultry and a plot of land.”

He said that they had five children and none survived and that it was the difficulty that her wife was having whenever she was pregnant that made her resign from banking job in 2003, stressing that there was a time she fainted in a vehicle on her way to work while pregnant.

However, when Saturday Sun visited their home at 14 Dada Ajiwun Street, Fag­bile Estate Phase 3, Ijegun, there are three buildings and stalls in the compound.

He said the wife’s relations have taken him to the Isheri-Osun police division and later State Criminal and Investigative Bu­reau, Panti, Yaba, where they were advised to go to the village and settle the matter.

“The day we agreed to meet, I had anoth­er engagement and I didn’t honour the ap­pointment. Now, they are saying that I have to bring the corpse to their place before they start any discussion”, he added.

The death of Charity is turning into a conundrum as the proprietress of the clinic where she allegedly died is now denying that Charity died in her clinic. The operator of the clinic, who spoke to Saturday Sun over the phone, said the last time the deceased came to her clinic was in 2013.

She said: “She was not brought to my clinic, and didn’t die there. Unless it was a time I wasn’t around. If the families have problem, they should not bring me into it. They should go and settle their differences.”

When asked if such a sensitive case could be brought to her clinic in her absence and she would not be briefed by her staff, she replied: “She wasn’t brought there.”

Neighbours, who described Charity as loveable, industrious and easygoing said she was brought to the clinic where she gave up the ghost.

Sun