*As members fight dirty over late man’s fortunes
By Lawrence Enyoghasu
After the interment of the late Mr. Onyemaechi Okorie, his family has been torn apart over his wealth. His pension and other benefits have been subject of the dispute that has now left the widow, Amaka and children at the mercy of neighbours and well-wishers.
According to Amaka, who is currently catering for four children, she saw the other side of her brother-in-law, Samuel Okorie, before and after her husband’s death. It all started in September 2014, when Amaka’s husband was hit by stroke. The illness lasted till December, when he gave up the ghost in one of the numerous hospitals he was taken to.
“During the course of treatment I was sent to the East with him to take care of him. Then I was still breastfeeding my last child, Uchechukwu. I succumbed to Samuel’s pressure and followed him to the place he said that they have been treating stroke patients, in Aguata, Anambra State. We were there until 1st December when my husband died. The next day, Samuel came and buried him without putting him in the mortuary. He buried my husband without any burial rite. He also instructed me to stay in the village to mourn my husband. I stayed in the village for three good months doing nothing only to mourn my husband while my children were in Lagos State,” Amaka said.
According to her, she returned to Lagos in April 2015 to start her life afresh with nothing. She survived on friends and well-wishers, who continued to show her love. Surprisingly, when she got to her husband’s place of work, she got another shock.
“It was then that they opened up that Samuel had been to the office initially to collect N80,000 from my husband’s account. He collected that money when my husband was still sick. I remember vividly that he came and gave us N1, 500. On that day, he told my husband that the office management was not complying; he spent that money without bringing out a dime to treat my husband. Later, the company communicated with me to come and get another set of money.
“They said that the management gave my husband N250, 000 and another cheque of N150, 000. They said that the money would be paid into an account to mature. My own account was already dormant. Samuel offered to help with his daughter’s account. The company strongly advised against it, but he said he was not going to be dubious with it. So I agreed. On that day, he said his brother’s children were also his children and so on, all so that I would agree. We were convinced and they agreed and the money be paid into his daughter’s account. After the money was paid, which was the next day, I expected him to tell me that the money had been paid, but he didn’t. When I went to meet him for the money, he then said he would be giving us the money according to our need. He seized the money. Sometimes when we ask him for money he would give us about N5, 000. Later, he told me that he used some of the money to process my husband’s pension.
“The last time I sent my son to get some money from him, he said that we don’t have any money with him and he does not want his money to mix with ours. We left him for peace to reign. I didn’t disturb him until my husband’s pension was released, like a true woman I called him that the money was out. We got the money. The money was about N650, 000. I could not have kept that money in the house, and he again said he was going to hold the money for us, so that we would not be robbed. Again like a true woman and a peace loving wife who wants to keep her husband’s family, I agreed, today as I am talking to you he is yet to give me the money. There was a time he told me that I should call my siblings before he would release that money to me. When my family gathered to hear him, he said he used the money to pay back those he borrowed from and all his personal input during the course of my husband’s sickness. He added that I was supposed to balance him with about N50, 000. On that day also, he said I was the one who killed my husband.”
When Saturday Sun located Samuel, he maintained that Amaka killed his brother by not taking good care of him. “My brother was used like a rag by his wife and that was why he had partial stroke. Everyday after work, he would still cook for his family to eat. For three good times, my brother collapsed where his wife was selling all in the name of helping out. When the man collapsed the third time, Amaka did not bother to take her husband to the hospital; instead she faced her business the next day. When asked, she said she went to church.
“When we were arguing about the money, Amaka threatened me that I should not allow myself to face her wrath. What she meant was that she has killed my brother, so I should not allow myself to be the next,” he alleged.
Samuel did not deny the allegation that he was holding on to his younger brother’s pension. He said: “I didn’t give her all the money because I wanted to watch her: I bought everything she needed to start her business. Everything I bought was double. She was supposed to be making profit from it, not loss. Every three days she came to get N10, 000 from the first set of money that was paid.
“When I was raising money for my brother’s treatment, there was no time I was called upon to visit my brother that I was not spending almost N120, 000. Before that, when he was being treated here in Lagos, he was taken to about four herbal hospitals and one pastor for treatment before he was moved back to Aguata. I spent about N150, 000 to transport my brother and his family to the village. That was the reason when the N650, 000 was given to me; I deducted the money I spent on my brother when he was sick, nothing more. I am not interested in my brother’s wealth.”
Samuel is concerned mostly about the wealth his brother had boasted to him he had while he was alive. He believes Amaka should bring it so that he can pay his brother’s remaining debt.
“My brother has money and only the wife knows where it is, she should bring it and let us pay his debts. She owes my mother in the village. When she was in the village, she was borrowing money from people with my mother’s name.
“Many a time that my brother would send for me to come from Lagos to see him on his sick bed I would go, he would want to talk to me, but the presence of the wife would always stop him from talking to me. I know he wanted to tell me where he kept his wealth, but his wife did not give us the space to discuss. Before my brother died, he told me that he had enough money that his children will spend in the university, but the money can’t be tampered with until next year. My brother told me that I should be calm, that his money will be cashable next year. I have a feeling that Amaka is keeping our brother’s money somewhere. This money is meant to train his children and not to be squandered. It is not this N650, 000 that he told me about”, he said.