Man in police net for squandering N2m raised for father’s burial

By Praise Chinecherem

A young man, identified as Uchenna Anadumaka, has been arrested for allegedly squandering N2 million raised for his father’s burial.

He was also said to have abandoned the father’s corpse in the mortuary for over nine months in Awgbu, in the Orumba North Local Government Area of the state.

The suspect, born by his father’s ex-wife, but said to be disowned by his father over a conflict, reportedly fled his father’s house since the fallout and never cared, visited, nor contributed a dime throughout the period 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, the suspect surfaced soon after the father’s demise.

She said, “Immediately the father died, the disowned son stormed from nowhere and started claiming his father’s property against the stepmother (his father’s second wife), Lovina Anadumaka, who was the person taking care of the husband till his death.

“To achieve this, he teamed up with his aunt (his father’s younger sister), Chinelo Anadumaka, who returned home after she was divorced by her husband in Abia State.”

Chinelo was 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) was accused of repeatedly beating, intimidating and harassing her aged mother, Maryrose Anadumaka.

A source said, ” Chinelo was previously married to a man from Abia State but divorced him a few years later after she reportedly hired thugs to beat up the husband and force him out of the house because he (the husband) started following her with caution .

“Chinelo got divorced and returned to her father’s compound in Awgbu and became a thorn on her mother’s flesh, to the extent that she took possession of significant portions of property in the compound and always tampered with her mother’s food stuffs. She had once called the vigilante officers for her mother.

According to Ikeanyionwu, 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, Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Welfare, Ify Obinabo condemned the act, describing it as evil and wickedness in the highest order.

She 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.

While warning them to desist forthwith from renting out the house in Awgbu or face the law, Obinabo also asked Chinelo Anadumaka to find another shop and vacate the one she forcefully collected from her mother.