The Rivers State governor, His Excellency, Chief Barrister NYESOM WIKE, as a general compensation, act of kindness and gratitude for the people of Ogbum-nu-Abali, gave two billion naira to the community. According to him, it was to be shared amongst the families of the community, and to every member of these families, including woman married into these families.
Unfortunately, most of the family heads and their co-conspirators, out of greed, envy, or hate, devised a means to deprive some members of their families from sharing from the gift by disqualifying them as non-members of their family ‘meetings’, which is contrary to the governor’s advice.
However, a case in point is that of the Oro Ada Extended family. Two brothers, Theophilus Achigbule, and Chisom Achigbule, and their wives were deprived from partaking from the gift.
Oro Ada Extended family is headed by Chief NYECHE AMADI. The Oro Ada extended family comprises of the Achigbule, the Amadi, the Chinda, and others. These families make up Oro Ada Extended family. It was gathered that the members of Oro Ada Extended family received more money each compared to other families in Ogbum-nu-Abali. Her male members got between one million five hundred thousand naira to three million naira each, while the women got two million five hundred thousand to four million naira.
According to the brothers, similar injustice was meted out to them years back while part of their so-called meeting members, were after years of contribution with other members, even financially, to sponsor the family legal matter on a land dispute with the people of OGOLOMA, a neighboring family. When judgement went their way, the family shared the land amongst themselves but gave them nothing.
According to these brothers, they believe that their inaction promoted the family to repeat same injustice. Besides, Mr Theophilus Achigbule, said that he visited the chief along with their uncle, Mr. Joel Chukwuemeka Achigbule, a Deeperlife Bible Church pastor, two weeks before the money was shared. According to him, right before his uncle, Chief Nyeche, repeatedly told them that he would share the money between families, where the family heads from Achigbule, CHINDA etc. would receive the money and share amongst the other members of their families, and that it was to avoid conflict of any kind.
The chief also clarified that the issue of being a member of the family association ‘meeting’ is not a barrier, but advised him and his brother to rejoin the association ‘meeting’ thereafter. On the women’s side, whose meeting is headed by one Mrs. Stella Achigbule, cousin to the complainants. She was approached about two weeks before the sharing by Mrs. Ine Benibo Achigbule, one of the complainants, concerning same issue of meeting, but Mrs. Stella Onu Achigbule told her that she would receive nothing because she wasn’t a member of the women’s meeting. when Mrs. Ine Achigbule asked for the requirements for membership, so that she could join, Mrs Stella replied that even if she joined then, she would still share nothing, and that it was the consensus of the members. Finally, Mrs. Ine Benibo Achigbule and Mrs Josephine Achigbule shared nothing. She was totally deprived. As a result of what Mr. Theophilus, Chisom, Ine, and Josephine Achigbule perceived as injustice. They took their complaints to the High Court in Port Harcourt.
The Nigerian Voice reached out to Chief Nyeche Amadi who is the head of Oro Ada Extended family on March 1, 2023 at 15:45 pm to corroborate the story. However, his lawyer, Barrister Temple Amadi called our staff on March 10, 2023 and warned this platform against publishing this story. He did not allow our staff to ask questions but unlike a Nigerian lawyer, dropped off his phone after the warning. We will follow up on the Court proceedings which will soon commence.
