By Patrick Ochei
The Awanyai family of Ogbe Umuokwuni in Ogwashi-Uku community of Aniocha South LGA, Delta State, has responded to the allegation of abandoning their amputee cousin at the Federal Medical Centre Asaba, and instead contesting the sale of an inherited family house to foot her medical bills, stating there was no truth in the way the woman presented the issue.
Speaking with the eldest member of the Awanyai family and retired Air Force officer who was fingered in the dispute, Mr Christopher Okeibunor Awanyai, he narrated the story behind the broken relationship between him and her cousin, Madam Ekwutoziam Felicia Okonji.
According to the 77 year old man, “We have never abandoned Ekwi right from the day she was born since 1959. Her mother was my father’s younger sister who got pregnant while serving a white family in Lagos as a baby nurse. And because it was a big issue working with a white woman pregnant, my father had to take her in to leave with us until she was delivered of the baby (Ekwutoziam). My father was then a Warder who later retired as a Chief Warder.
“Ekwutoziam lived with us and answered Awanyai because nobody knew anything about her father. When my father was transfered to Warri, they moved with us and from there to Auchi. It was later that her mother relocated back to Lagos where she got a job.
“The mother later got married to an Ibusa man, but the marriage eventually broke up. When I went to see her in Lagos, then I was in Service as an Airforce officer, she was devastated. She was about retiring; no husband and no place to retire to. So she asked me to beg my father to give her a parcel of land in the family land where she could build a house to live in.
“I was the one who pleaded with my father to allot a space for her to build a house. My father vehemently refused. He said to me she was a woman and there was no way she would be allowed to build a house in her father’s land and it won’t result to dispute later with her or her children. This was in 1982, he told me to mark it. I went back to Lagos to inform her, but she broke down and started crying. I couldn’t take it, and then I returned home to Ogwashi-Uku after three days to plead with my father again. It was so serious that my father was compelled to release the plot of land for her to build. This is family land, from the beginning of this road to the extreme where my cousin’s mother built that house. I never thought of any dispute as long as she would live there and her children could also live there, so long we all remain on the family land as family”, he narrated.
Mr Awanyai said his auntie lived and died in Ogwashi-Uku but was buried at her husband’s place in Ibusa.
He revealed that her auntie’s daughter, Ekwutoziam is the only surviving child of the auntie now, adding that she moved into the mother’s house when her marriage to one Ejiofor, a former Custom’s officer from Agidiase in Ogwashi-Uku also failed.
His words, “We didn’t bother her even though we knew the enormity of the offence that made her ran out of her husband’s house over night. We accommodated her and had always taken care of her and her two children.
“When she retired as a teacher, I was always helping her with money to travel to Asaba to pursue her pension. We were very close, sometimes she even wrote letters to me if she needed something and didn’t want to open up or come personally. Some of the handwritten letters are still with me.
“When my late younger brother, Maxwell Awanyai wanted to evict her from the house, I was the one who stood by her. My brother had used his own plot of land to build a church close to the house and then started making trouble with her for space, I said no, she has a right to live and maintain the compound as a family member. My brother took that as an offence against me even till he passed.
“My brother, Maxwell and wife were buried close to the fence of the land. But there are other three family members buried directly on that land – Iwebunor Joseph Awanyai, Nwaka Awanyai and Potia Awanyai. These were family members that we buried there because Ogwashi-Uku does not have burial grounds and we bury on any available space in family land.
“Ekwutoziam started keeping malice with me since 2019, I don’t know why. I have always helped her, even my children. All I could remember was once when she was going to Asaba over her pension issue and she asked me for #5000, and I told her that this #5000 she would pay back but she shouldn’t bother about the previous ones. She paid but ever since then, I noticed she stopped associating with me as usual, and instead started keeping a different set of friends.
“She was sick and she didn’t tell anybody. I was not aware until I started hearing that she had put up her mother’s house for sale. I said no, she cannot sell a house in a family land. Who even gave her that right? She was answering Awanyai before now, but all of a sudden she discovered that her father was from Ubulu-Uku when the man died. She participated in the burial without telling us; and then she changed her name to that man’s name. After all my father and all of us did for her, covered her mother’s shame and brought her up, this is how she has rewarded us.
“So I went there and wrote ‘This House Is Not For Sale’. But each time I did that, her son, Chukwunweike would come back and clean it up. People were coming to buy the property but when they inquired it is a family land, they stayed away. Even one Isaac Nwaduma wanted to buy the house being a known business person in town, but the man came to inquire from me if he should go ahead. I told him no and he stayed away.
“Now, why must it be Rita Daniels, who said she is the ‘Ochudo of Ogwashi-Uku’ that should buy it? My daughters came home and inquired of their auntie Ekwutoziam. So they went to the house and her son told them the mother was in FMC. And when they asked him how much was demanded for the medical bill that they couldn’t ask any of the family members, but instead put up the house for sale, the boy told them they had already sold the house to Chief Rita for #2.7 million to foot the medical bill.
“I didn’t even believe it initially. We decided to schedule a meeting of Umu Amina with Rita so we could ask her questions regarding the authenticity of the rumour and possibly refund her money. The day she came, she told the elders that she had already bought the house and she was going ahead with development on it. The next thing she walked away and mobilized workers to the place to start fencing.
“While my daughter Joy was trying to resist the workers from working, she brought in three soldiers. That was how I went to report at the Military Command as a retired military man too. They mobilized to the place and that was how the others took off.
“At the Police Area Command Ogwashi-Uku, where we later moved to resolve the case, she came in and introduced herself as Ned Nwoko’s mother in-law. I am really disappointed that Police officers could be carried away by this posture of intimidation. And almost immediately, the Police started speaking from both sides of their mouth. You can imagine the Area Commander, ACP Uche Obiozor asking us to go and exhume the dead bodies of our family members from the land if that was our problem, that she had already paid for the property.
“I want to sincerely thank you for coming to hear our own side of the story. Though I was angry that I was not heard from before your publication, but having explained that you reached out to my daughter but she didn’t respond, I am happy and also apologise for that.
“Let me inform you that we have commenced legal proceedings on this issue. Our insistence remains that the house is on family land and cannot be sold. Nobody, no matter how rich can come here to intimidate us.
“Rita was the one who involved Prince Ned Nwoko in this matter, nobody mentioned his name. When Ned came to marry Rita’s daughter, we were there as family. He gave our family #500,000.00 and I was the one that the money was handed over to as the Treasurer. We don’t have any issue with the man, he is our in-law and has nothing to do with the steps the mother in-law is taking”, he explained.
Meanwhile, the daughter, Miss Joy Awanyai, believed to have made some posts on social media that triggered the online war, explained her own side of the story.
She said she never insulted Chief Rita Daniels or Prince Ned Nwoko, stating that she was the one that came in at the Police Area Commander’s office and introduced herself as Ned Nwoko’s mother in-law which were exactly what she referred to in making her posts on Instagram.
She said, “I am an Optometrist working at an eye clinic in Lagos. I came to visit my father during the festive period, that was when I knew auntie Ekwi wasn’t well and that she put up the house for sale. I know she had some issues with my father that severed their relationship but my father had always supported her.
“I went to meet her son Nweike to inquire how much they needed for the medical bills instead of putting up a house on a family land for sale. He told me we shouldn’t bother, that they had already sold the house to Chief Rita Daniels for #2.7 million. I said no, you guys can’t do that, I had already called my sister, a Pharmacist to come from Lagos and I was going to pick her from the airport so we could arrange with our dad to make refund to Chief Rita.
“Later at a meeting of Umu Amina family with Chief Rita, she refused to accept to ever collect any money from us, and then she went and brought soldiers to begin work on the property. I proved stubborn to them anyway. It was disheartening to imagine that because of this issue, my auntie’s son Nweike had to hold my dad on his shirt and pushed him.
“My take is that if Chief Rita is the Ochudo (The Seeker of Peace), is this how to resolve an issue, at least we all are Ogwashi-Uku people? If she really wants to help and save my auntie’s life, she could have as well given her the money because she has it.
“Again, my auntie cannot be accusing people unjustly, claiming family attack or juju was responsible for her ailment. There are ailments that can result to such conditions, for example diabetes is not juju now.
“Chief Rita’s lawyer called me and was threatening me. I don’t know how he got my number. I have also contacted my lawyer, Barr. Charles Okoh whom they will be hearing from too”, she posited.
Recall that a publication on the title “How Rita Daniels Saved My Life – Abandoned Amputee Teacher” was recently made after granting interviews to the woman, Madam Ekwutoziam Felicia Okonji at FMC, her son, Chukwunweike at the contentious house in Ogwashi-Uku and of course, Chief Rita Daniels who saved her life by raising the exact money needed in exchange for a family property. We couldn’t represent the angle of the other parties, though we sent several messages to Joy Awanyai which she didn’t respond to.
However, when they contacted Anioma Trust Office to be given audience too, they were obliged, having also acknowledged that we indeed made effort to reach them at the first instance.