Alhaja Adejoke Orenaike, a widow at 36, was at the center of the whole
issue in a polygamous home. Eight days after her husband died, her
co-wife and step son sent her out of her matrimonial home.
“My husband died on the 5th of May, 2013 after a protracted illness.
Before his death, there were insinuations and revelations, according to
my husband that my co-wife was plotting to kill him. My husband asked
her but she denied. But after his death, events began to unfold which
gave credence to the earlier suspicion. On the 8th day prayer rite, two
members of the family came to the house with some hoodlums and sent me
and my daughter out of the house.
husband’s house to celebrate the Muslim festival, Ileya.”“I had sent my
daughter on an errand and on her way back,when one of them began to rain curses on her I stepped out to know what was happening.
As if they were waiting for me to step out, they gave me the beating of
my life. It got to a point that my child had to run out to seek
assistance when my husband’s fellow wife brought out knife and stabbed
me around my buttocks and wounded me in the mouth.
“One of the them
thereafter threatened to burn the house if we did not leave the house at
that point. So, I ran out of the house and he did not allow me take
anything, not even a pin. This was the same house I was living with my
husband before his demise. This destablised my business and my
daughter’s education to a large extent.
“I mourned my husband for four months and 11days not in my matrimonial home but where I was squatting after they
sent me and my daughter out of the house, just eight days after the
death of my husband. It was during this time that I gathered that one of
the members of the family had sold the house I was living with my
husband. He packed my belongings to my shop which was built in front of
the house with some of my valuables still missing.
“However, when I discovered some of my belongings were missing, I
informed some elders from my husband’s family. They asked him but he
denied taking them. The elders told me to exercise patience, saying that
they would resolve the matter one year after my husband’s death. They
even asked him why he sold the house but he told them that it was not
their business.
“Right now, I cannot access any property of my husband. It is so
with his business. He used to have three bank accounts with First Bank,
Diamond and Union banks. His brother has taken over everything including
cash mostly in foreign currencies.
“Along the line, my husband’s relatives tried their best to settle the
bickering but one of my step sons refused bluntly. He thereafter
threatened to kill me or kidnap my daughter. He said I could share his
father’s property with them (himself and his other siblings) just
because I have a female child for his late father.
Adejoke agreed that her husband’s inability to prepare a Will before his
death caused this bickering. She stated that the head of the family had
warned that sharing of property should wait until after a year but he
chose to have his way.
“They said sharing of my husband’s property should wait till after a
year but he declined and chose to sell my husband’s property
“One of them has threatened to kill me and my child over my
husband’s property. My shop has been closed down since the death of my
husband for more than a year now. I have petitioned the commissioner of
police and our case has been transferred to Panti.
The Police force from Panti searched his house and my international
passport and the knife with which his wife used to stab me were found.
Adejoke stated that until the death of their husband, she had a cordial relationship with her co-wife, and her step sons.
“We had a cordial relationship before the death of my husband. In fact
we were living together for some time until my husband bought the house
which has now been sold. My husband and I left
the house when he took ill following the allegation of plotting to kill
him through diabolical means. People advised my husband to leave the
house and I left with him. My husband and I traveled twice to India for
medical attention and on each occasion, neither my co-wife, nor the son
who sold the property cared to go with him to India or to know how he
was faring.”“The royal father is the head of the family and he
was the one who trained my husband. He was the one who said we should
wait till a year after my husband’s death. When Saturday Vanguard
contacted him, the royal father also declined comment but promised to
get back to us soon.She maintained that several truce attempts called by
the head of the family, HRM Bola Rahimi, Oba Alarige of Ibi-Ade, Ijebu
water side, did not work.
Late Sikiru Orenaike was a business man with several properties in Lagos and London. In a letter purportedly written by the deceased while receiving treatment in India, he directed that his properties be shared among his children including Mariam, the 8-year-old daughter and his two wives and other members of the family.