A widow, Lady Blessing Chioma Nwankpa has pleaded with the Inspector General of Police, other security agencies and her Mgboko Okpulo in Ikem Mgboko Autonomous Community in Obingwa LGA to help her recover her husband’s corpse from her stepson, Amaechi Nwankpa, legally known as Amaechi Ahuama.
Lady Nwankpa who lives in the US said at the death of her husband, Pa Benjamin Okechukwu Nwankpa in Nigeria on the 23rd of July 2022, he was buried on December 28, 2022 according to traditional customs, until the man’s first son from another woman, exhumed the corpse after burial and took it to an unknown destination.
Late Hon Benjamin Okechukwu Nwankpa, was a former People’s Democratic Party, PDP stakeholder, who served in various capacities under the Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s administration, before defecting to the Young Progressive Party, YPP.
Addressing the press, Lady Nwankpa said she officially married her husband while she was at her early twenties, precisely on January 6, 1990, having known the man at the age of 12 when he visits her maiden home, calling her “my wife”.
She disclosed that Pa Nwankpa was living in the US and didn’t want her to come to the US, except with a Green Card, but later on May 18th, 1991 changed the plans for her to come to the US.
Lady Nwankpa said, “three weeks to our wedding date, he called to inform her that he has a son in the US by a black America, but not married to her. I felt betrayed and deceived, but my mother advised me that it is not a big deal. I accepted”.
She had her first child on July 20, 1991 and on February 28, 1993, adding “my husband had to go for a paternity test” to enable her get her citizenship to come to the US.
“Since 1993, I have lived with the stepson and my son, then came five others later.
“On July, 23, 2021, about 3 am Nigerian time, I received a call from my husband’s relation that De Nwankpa is dead and I pleaded that he should be taken to the hospital”, she said adding that her children asked that their father should be kept for a while to see if he can wake up.
While this happened, the stepson was interested in the man’s wealth, and ransacked the man’s house and seized all money he found in the house.
She returned home and while in the east, called the stepson to give her the husband’s phone to enable her contact friends and relations, who assured that he will courier it to her from his Lagos residence.
At home, she talked to the man with the mortuary tally, demanding to see her husband’s corpse and the person agreed that they will meet at Obingwa Allied Mortuary after which the burial was fixed with church ministers and she went back to the US where she planned a service of songs for the late husband on 22nd December, 2022 in the US.
However, the stepson said we will not do any service of songs, but came at the occasion to disturb the ceremony up to a point that the police was invited, “but my son said no”.
Lady Blessing whose maiden home is in Ugwunnagbo said they headed home to Nigeria for the burial, “but all we were receiving from the stepson was threat – I, my son, the church, community and he brought in the policed to arrest the elders of the community.
He stormed the burial venue with thugs armed with guns, disrupted the burial ceremony, chased guests away and went straight to the grave of Chief Nwankpa and exhumed the corpse.
She pleaded that the corpse of her husband which was properly buried and exhumed by her “strange son” should be found, adding, “let this boy go and appease the gods so as to avoid generational course”.
Also speaking, the woman’s son, Victor Nwankpa said, “it is a shock. We are traumatized. We are angry. What he has done is abomination. Mother single handedly raised us by herself”.
According to the woman’s daughter, Witney Obiagelli Nwankpa, ” I wonder why people are not prepared to intervene, but kept quiet. Mother played motherly role”.
When contacted, the traditional ruler of Ikem Mgboko Autonomous Community in Obingwa LGA, Eze Onyendilazu said he was very much aware of the matter, stating “I and others are against what they did. The boy actually with the community youths conspired and to do what they did.
“Because of that, the YPP governorship candidate, Enyinnaya Nwafor called me and all of sat down and discussed the issue and convened the community and linked the boy up.
“We pleaded with the boy that since he is the first son, nobody will remove his position as the first son from him, so that we can bury this man as they have nothing to be done with the corpse.
“He and Umuohu youths conspired and said “over their dead body and that they will not do such a thing, adding that the first son will say how things are to be done”.
The royal father now queried, “Is the second son not there? Is it the first only that determines what happens? Is the wife who is legally married, the one we know and bore children for him not there?
“This woman trained him as his mother abandoned him. He was trained by late Ben nwankpa and this woman raised him up. This is according to what I heard as they live outside the country while I am in Nigeria.
“After training him, he came home, his father died and he did Ben’s corpse like that. I am highly worried and reasonable people are also highly worried. Up till now, he said he will bury his father and that the corpse should be given to him for burial. He invited the police and the others also called the police and the police came and started shooting.
“I am old to receive such type of insolence in my community. So that was how it happened. He carried the corpse since then and nobody has heard anything from him.
“The boy has not even come to tell me his plans towards burying his father. I was at the burial myself and they went there and exhumed it and carried away”.
According to him, it is the responsibility of the wife to inform the police adding that the woman ran away, “otherwise, they would have killed the woman and her children and she ran away to Port Harcourt”.
The royal father said he doesn’t know how he was able to gather the youths, stating also that he doesn’t know the mother of the boy Amaechi Nwankpa, and has not heard from her, adding that he has desecrated the land and is now left for the owners of the land.
