~ She’s trying to push us away from our late brother’s businesses – Late husband’s brother
By Our Correspondent
A widow, Mrs. Okolie Ugochi Hannah, has petitioned the Inspector General of Police, IGP, alleging that her life and that of her four children are in danger following intimidation and harassment by her late husband’s brothers, who, she claimed, took over her late husband’s business since his death.
Mrs Okolie was married to Late Mr. Okolie Anayochukwu George, 40, and a Lagos – based businessman, who died mysteriously after returning home from his shop.
According to his widow, her late husband got an invitation from his elder brother for a meeting on that fateful day, adding that it was the last time her husband was seen alive.
But one of late Okolie’s brothers, John Okolie, denied the allegations, saying that his late brother’s wife is only looking for a way to push members of his family away from their late brother’s businesses.
The widow’s lawyer, Kenechukwu Samuel, who submitted the petition through the Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIG, in charge of Zone 13, Ukpo, Anambra State, said the refusal to return to his client what belongs to her since the death of her husband, is an offence under section 278(a) & (b), (2) and section 282 of the criminal code law of Lagos State and also applicable to other states’ criminal code laws in the South East states.
“In his lifetime, Mr. Okolie allowed his wife to know everything about his business as they both manage it together for the good and progress of the family, but now, his family has stopped our client from going to the shop and she does not have any means of livelihood apart from the late husband’s shop.
“Sir, it is important that you use your good office to intervene in this matter because if care is not taken, it may lead to the loss of the life of our client.
“It is also our client’s humble appeal that you investigate this case as her husband’s family is determined to chase her out into the street with her four children from the house that she and her husband built together”, Barrister Kenechukwu pleaded with the IGP.
Vanguard learnt that one of Okolie’s brothers, who was said to be the brain behind Mrs Okolie’s ordeal, was detained at the Zone 13 Police, Ukpo, when he brought a counter petition to the Police station, although he has been granted bail.
In the petition to IGP, Mrs Okolie said that soon after her husband’s death, his brothers began to maltreat her and her children, to the extent of chasing them out of her house and forcefully taking over his husband’s businesses and vehicles.
Her petition read in part: “My Late husband was never sick and I suspect that he did not die a natural death. I was never aware of the unfortunate incident because my husband’s family members seized the corpse and horridly took it to the village.
“There was no doctor’s medical report; there was no autopsy conducted on my late husband to ascertain what killed him and I was equally not informed or allowed to see the dead body of my late husband before he was horridly taken to our village in Obuovia Awgu Town in Enugu State.
“It took the intervention of my maiden family to learn that he had died. When I became worried about his sudden disappearance, his family broke the bad news to me and told me to come to the village with my four children in a very dismissive and cold manner.
“After my late husband’s burial, I had to observe the traditional widowhood practice according to the tradition of our village. it has been a tug of war, intimidation and incessant harassment by my husband’s family since then.
“His brothers took over my late husband’s shop and even opened a new account in their name. They took over our shop while I was still mourning, and opened account with the Zenith Bank and all monies/sales accruing to our businesses were paid into that account. I earlier thought it was done on trust because I was still mourning, but I have now discovered that it was a conspiracy with his other brothers.
“My late husband was a very kind, caring and loving husband who would never neglect his children for any reason and now his brothers have seized everything we laboured together to make.”
Mrs Okolie added that while she was still mourning her late husband in the village and observing the widowhood rites, members of her husband’s family went to her house in Lagos and ransacked it and collected everything.
“I observed that they collected the key to my house in Lagos and broke some of the doors; made away with my late husband’s documents and made away with four of my husband’s vehicles namely, a Nissan Bus, a Ford Bus, a Pathfinder Jeep and a Lexus Jeep.
“However, they only surrendered them following the intervention of a Human Rights organization and Police investigators from the Lagos State command where I had submitted a petition earlier.
“This my husband’s brother on whose name the account was opened, has been evading arrest by the Lagos State Police command. He ran down to the East and has been harassing my only surviving brother in the village, Mr. Charles Chinagorom Uche, with policemen, and threatening him with incessant arrest and frivolous petitions.
“It should be noted equally that ever since then, they have refused to render account of all the sales made for a period of seven months they forcefully took over my late husband’s shop, as most of the payments were made into personal account”, she lamented.
According to Mrs Okolie, the sum allegedly paid into her brother inlaw’s personal account from the proceeds of her husband’s business totalled about N60,000,000, while the cash is about N20,000,000, adding that all these are in her brother inlaw’s possession till date.
In a telephone interview, John Okolie said: “It is unfortunate that we lost our brother at the young age of 40 years. We did not have issues with our late brother’s wife, until she started writing petitions against us.
“Our concern is to ensure that our late brother’s businesses do not collapse and that the children should continue with their education.
“We held a family meeting involving her own people to resolve the issue, but surprisingly after the meeting, the police came to my shop to arrest me on the ground that a petition was written against me.
“Her brother also wrote a petition against my family and we were even taken to court in Enugu. All the allegations against us are open to investigation.”
He said that his late brother’s widow is fully in charge of his businesses and claimed that all the monies she talked about are in an account and also open for investigation.
The matter is currently being investigated by operatives of Zone 13 Police, Ukpo.
