• Adaeze Photo: Sun News Publishing

Woman of the Sun Index

When they got married at St Leo’s Catholic Church in 1987, it was one of the best relationships anyone could ask for. Then the family began to grow with two lovely daughters and they were waiting for more. But unfortunately things fell apart for the family in April 1993.

Amaka Anichebe begins her story this way: " That morning I left our Plot 226B, Babs Abosede close residence in Ajao Estate, Lagos. The children also left for their school at Estate Primary School, also in Ajao Estate. By the time I came back I realized that he was not around. Some of his valuables were also missing".

Her husband, Chiazo, had disappeared into the thin air.
She combed everywhere but he was nowhere to be found. "One morning in September about five months after, the children and our houseboy ran into my husband on their way to school. He asked the houseboy to go and buy biscuits and picked our two children in the car. That was the last time I saw my children. I searched everywhere but the search yielded no result".

At this point she went to St Leo’s Catholic Church where they had their wedding ceremony for help. " Here, I was given a letter which I took to Holy Ghost Cathedral, Enugu, but he did not come. So I came to Lagos and was referred to FIDA. They gave me a lawyer but again there was no response from my husband. I went to his office in search of him but I learnt that he had left the place".

For 15 years, Anichebe cried and cried. Her endless tears took a negative toll on her health for about 8 years. "In the process of going up and down, looking for the children, I fell very sick. I just got better last year because the whole thing affected me so much.

"This January, he summoned me to the Holy Ghost Cathedral, Enugu. There the Reverend Father said he wanted to hear my own side of the story and I told him. When they called my husband he came in and that was the first time that I saw him in 15 years. I cried and my mind flashed through so many things. But he did not come with the children."

They left the church but she longed to see her children desperately. Anichebe went in search of so many family friends in the bid to see her children.

" I finally located his house somewhere in Idimu, Lagos. Then I went to Project Alert and they went with me to the Human rights desk in area F police station. There they helped me to locate him".
This turned out to be a memorable encounter for the woman who met her second daughter who would be 17 years in a few weeks.

"I didn’t even recognize the girl. Someone later told me that she was my daughter and I was surprised how big she had become. She was only one year and 11 months when she was taken away from me. They also forced my husband to disclose the whereabouts of my first daughter. He gave them her phone number; she is in one of the private universities in Enugu. I spoke to the girl but the girl was blank. I later realized that the picture painted was that I abandoned my own children".

Anichebe breaks down at this point and cries. A few minutes later she recovers briefly and stares into the ceiling as if answers to her problems would come from there. "What I want is access to my children. I want to show them love, I want my children back. I want them to know that I am their mother. I have been denied so much and humiliated by my in-laws".