As Emeka Offor, 56, the controversial Nigerian government contractor, is preparing to perform the traditional marriage of his new 24-year-old wife, Adaobi Ufondu, in their hometown of Oraifite, Ekwusigo Local Government Area of Anambra State on January 3, 2014, two major wars have broken out in his family.
One of the wars centres around his three wives and the other is between him and his siblings. Both wars have to do with his acquisition of a third wife.
Immediately his first wife, Nkiru (nee Emoke) from Otulu in Oru West Local Government area of Imo State, announced three days ago that she would celebrate the Christmas and New Year at Oraifite, both Offor and the other wives recognized immediately that “there is now a huge harmattan fire on the mountain”, as the businessman’s first cousin told our correspondent in confidence yesterday in an exclusive interview, pleading that the name should not be disclosed because he did not have the family’s permission to speak to the media.
Nkiru , who claims that the husband abandoned her in a mansion on Osborne Street in Ikoyi, Lagos, since 2002, has not been to Oraifite during Christmas for several years.
Married to Offor since December, 1982, when the two were struggling to make ends meet, Offor dreads Nkiru, often accusing her of being very fetish.
Ironically, family members accuse Offor of being not just fetish but also occultic, alleging that he was the person who initiated her into fetish practice.
The family members say they don’t understand why Offor should maltreat the first wife so much so that he “has practically severed relations with even the five daughters and three sons they have together.”
Our correspondent has reliably gathered that their first child, a 28-year-old school dropout named Chuka, has for years been jobless in London.
“Why can’t he employ Chuka in his business organization?”, wondered an unnamed kinsman who disagrees with the suggestion that the younger Offor’s problem could be due to his low educational qualifications.
“What credentials has Emeka himself ever possessed?”, he asked rhetorically, adding that Offor’s new wife dropped out of the Law Faculty of the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, despite Offor’s intense lobbying of the university authorities which cost him at least 15million naira.
The kinsman, who is fairly advanced in age, also disclosed that Offor has over the years bluntly refused to allow his first daughter, Obianuju, a lawyer trained in the United Kingdom who works in the petroleum industry, marry a man of her choice.
Obianuju, fondly called Uju, has been living with the man who hails from Ilaje, the riverine part of Ondo State.
The relationship has produced two sons.
Offor’s reported reasons for refusing the couple the formalization of their relationship are that the man is neither wealthy nor well educated.
Meanwhile, Mrs Nkiru Offor’s decision to be home for Christmas and the New Year has caused the husband to start building a house at the back of his own castle where his new wife will live so as to minimize contact with the first wife, for fear that any contact between them could lead to a fracas.
Construction started on December 19, 2013, and work has been going on round the clock in the hope that it would be ready as much as possible by January 3, 2014, when the traditional marriage ceremony will be performed.
The second warfront was opened a few days ago when Offor revealed that he would pay the dowry of the second wife named Joy once he concludes the marriage ceremony of the newest wife.
As if to worsen matters, Offor also announced that he would participate fully in the 80th birthday celebration of Joy’s father, Sir Enoch Chukwureh, holding this weekend at Ubahu, Orodo in Mbaitoli Local Government area of Imo State.
These disclosures have infuriated Offor’s siblings who feel betrayed because they have been in support of his third marriage as a way to spite Joy whom they accuse of being responsible for the first wife’s abandonment.
Both Nnamdi and Menkus, Offor’s younger siblings, were not only present at the dowry payment for Adaora on Saturday, October 12, 2013, at Umuezopi, Oraifite, but also served as bouncers as they collected cameras from guests and damaged them in full public view in a desperate attempt to prevent the public from having details of the event.
Fearing that his newest wife cannot withstand the tremendous tension in his extended family, Offor has already informed Adaora’s father, Chief Alexander Okey Ufondu who is a trader based in Onitsha, Anambra State, that his daughter will return with him to his house after the ceremony, instead of being with him (Offor) for the time being.
The high tension in the family has also forced Offor to scale down the level of ceremony initially planned for the traditional marriage ceremony.
Musicians like P Square and Flavour N’Abania who had been invited to play at the ceremony will now perform at Offor’s Blaze radio station at Oraifite as part of the annual Christmas and new Year celebrations.
