By Izunna Okafor, Awka
A young man identified as Uchenna Anadumaka is currently in the police net in Anambra State for reportedly squandering the sum of two million naira (N2,000 000) mapped out for his father’s burial.
The incident happened at Awgbu, Orumba North Local Government Area of the state, where the suspect was also said to have been disowned by his father after they had issue when he was alive. The suspect, born to by his father’s ex-wife, was said to be out of his father’s house since the fallout between two of them, and never cared, visited him, nor contributed a dime throughout the period he (his father) was sick till his death.
According to the Public Relations Officer of the Anambra State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare, Chidinma Ikeanyionwu, immediately after the death of the man, the disowned son stormed from nowhere and started dragging his father’s property with the stepmother (his father’s second wife), Lovina Anadumaka, who was the person taking care of the husband till his death.
To perpetrate his evil, Uchenna was said to have teamed up with his aunt (his father’s younger sister), Chinelo Anadumaka, who returned home after she was divorced by her own husband in Abia State for infidel. Chinelo was also said to have been subjecting her mother and her late brother’s wife to different kinds of ill treatment since she returned from the failed marriage.
Chinelo, an officer of the Operation Clean and Healthy Anambra (OCHA Brigade) has been accused of repeatedly beating, intimidating and harassing her aged mother, Maryrose Anadumaka.
It was reported that the suspect was previously married to a man from Abia State but later divorced him a few years later after she reportedly hired thugs to beat up her husband and force him out of the house because he (the husband) started following her with caution after he discovered that she was involved in infidel which made him to nearly lose his life in accordance with the traditions of their land.
It was also gathered that after Chinelo got divorced and returned to her father’s compound in Awgbu that she became a thorn in her mother’s flesh, to the extent that she took possession of significant portions of property in the compound and even stole her mother’s food stuffs. She was also reported to have called the vigilante officers on her mother.
During questioning, she claimed her cruelty towards her mother stemmed from her suspicion that her mother had an affair with her husband.
It is reported that Chinelo started maltreating her late brother’s wife, Lovina Anadumaka, immediately after the death of her husband.
According to Chidinma Ikeanyionwu, the Public Relations Officer of the Anambra State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare; Chinelo and Uchenna connived and forcefully stripped the bereaved second wife of all her husband’s belongings, including his ATM cards, phones, house in Delta State and other houses he owned, and started collecting rents from the tenants residing in the houses.
She revealed that the duo showed no care nor contributed Kobo when the widow’s husband was sick, only for them to quickly collect everything the husband owned from her. She also narrated how the stepson, Uchenna, squandered the sum of two million naira that was withdrawn from his late father’s bank account and given to him for preparation of the father’s burial, after which the corpse was abandoned in the mortuary for nine months. He could not also give any coherent response on what he used the two million naira to do.
As a result, the maltreated young widow (the second wife of the deceased) had to go borrowing money to bury her husband. Subsequently, Uchenna, the stepson, and Chinelo, her sister-in-law, took her children away and left her with nothing, sending her back to her father’s house empty-handed.
Speaking on the matter after hearing from complainants and the accused, the State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Welfare, Mrs. Ify Obinabo outrightly condemned the act, describing it as evil and wickedness in the highest order.
The Commissioner ordered the immediate arrest of the two suspects by the operatives of the Anambra State Police Command.
She also mandated the duo to hand-over every document pertaining to the house in Ibusa in their possession to the widow.
Obinabo went further to warn them to desist forthwith from renting the house in Awgbu out or face the law. She also asked Chinelo Anadumaka to find another shop and vacate the one she forcefully collected from her mother.
