“One of the easiest things in life is to judge others. One of the simplest things we can ever do is to tell how wrong people are. One of the most thoughtless things we can ever do is to show people their faults unconstructively. It is always so easy and common to do such things but, before you do that, find the uncommon reasons for the faulty life…”, said Ernest Agyemang Yeboah.
The holy book also said “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” – Matthew 7:1-2
Hmmnn…. And that was how this meddlesome mother-in-law in the bid to embarrass her daughter-in-law ended up exposing her deeply buried secret.
The Mirror reports that this meddlesome mother-in-law would not stop harping on her new granddaughter’s ‘unusual’ appearance. Her unrelenting comments came about after the baby was born with green eyes – a characteristic nobody else in their family shared.
The new mum ended up submitting a DNA test for her husband and their daughter in a bid to clear her name. But the shocking results revealed a decades-old secret that the grandmother had been hiding.
The new mum said on Reddit: “I gave birth to my daughter two months ago and despite my husband telling me he knows I’d never cheat on him, I wanted to give our daughter a paternity test. The reason – she has green eyes.
“My husband and I don’t have green eyes, my parents don’t either and neither do my in-laws – no one in my family has them. My husband said it was probably some weird genetic thing but I wanted the test for his peace of mind.
“He kept refusing because he trusts me but his mother keeps commenting on her eyes, as do the rest of his family, who keep making comments about me possibly cheating. Even my family finds it odd that our daughter has green eyes.”
Much to her delight, her husband eventually agreed to do the paternity test, and as expected, the results came back saying he was the father of their daughter. But after reading the results in more detail, she realised something was very wrong.
“Our daughter is his but my father-in-law isn’t my husband’s father,” she added. “My in-laws have been married for decades so the idea that my mother-in-law cheated on my father-in-law never crossed either of our minds.
“My husband wants to confront his mother but I’m telling him to wait. Yes, she’s a liar and a hypocrite but we need to think this through.
“I agree my father-in-law should know but we’re both tired from taking care of a newborn, we’ve found out something shocking and we are not thinking rationally. He wants to tell his father and so do I but the fallout will be apocalyptic.
“I just wanted to give him peace of mind and instead I started the end of his parent’s marriage and possibly blew up his family.”
Commenting on her post, one user said: “Your mother-in-law was projecting so much now her a*** is uncovered”. Another user added: “What gets me is the fact that she pushed for you and her son to do the one thing that would expose her secret.
“All she had to do was keep quiet and no one would’ve been the wiser.”
A third user said: “Next time your mother-in-law talks about green eyes, just look her dead in the eyes and say ‘Oh, I know how they got green eyes… there are ways of finding these things out.”
Chinaza after the botched surgery
Credits: The Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ)
By‘Fisayo Soyombo
Originally published byThe Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ)
It all started by happenstance. Investigative journalist ‘FISAYO SOYOMBO was in Port Harcourt on November 8, 2022 to track a case at the Rivers State High Court. Seeking directions to Hon Justice Enebeli J’s Court 8, he was instead misled to Hon. Justice Elsie Nwanwuri Thompson’s Court 7, where he was dumbstruck by the relaxed, almost playful demeanour of the first defendant’s counsel in an ongoing case while the claimant’s counsel cut a frustrated figure in his futile attempts to convince the judge to shun an out-of-court settlement and begin the trial.
As he would discover, it was a case between giant oil company Shell — represented by Michael Amadi from Olaniwun Ajayi LP — and a couple with a brain-damaged and bedridden son.
Something didn’t seem quite right, so he started to ask questions, read previous half-hearted publications on the matter, and work his contacts. He found the couple in a matter of days, but they declined to speak, being current employees of the oil company. Over the next five months, he would intermittently text, call and visit them, without much luck initially. He would eventually gain their trust. In March, 2023 they finally opened their doors to him. It was almost half-a-year since the first phone call, and no progress had been made with the much-touted out-of-court settlement.
In September 2016, when Stella and Emeka Okoli consented to an appendicitis surgery for their 10-year-old only son Chinazam, the surgeon at the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Industrial Area Clinic in Rumuobiakani, Rumuomasi in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, had told them it was a simple, straightforward 30-minute procedure. In fact, it was meant to be so simple the surgeon assured them their son would be discharged within four days of the surgery. Seven years later, Stella and Emeka Okoli are still waiting for their son to be “discharged”.
Chinaza and mum in his healthy days
With the benefit of hindsight, this medical procedure was already primed for botching since the previous month when Stella first took Chinazam to the hospital after he complained of stomach ache. A physician at the clinic examined him and concluded he was fine. However, on Friday September 2, three days before his scheduled resumption of school, he complained of the ache again. Stella returned with him to the clinic and, this time, the doctor who examined Chinazam said he had to see a surgeon at once.
“He referred us to a surgeon,” a sorrowful, crestfallen Stella tells FIJ inside an imposing hospital in Central London when FIJ visited Chinazam for the first time in March 2023, seven years after the surgery. “As they spoke over the phone, I heard the surgeon scream in their language, asking why they let the appendix inflame to that extent.”
When Dr. Aruoriwo Alexander Dimoko, the surgeon, arrived at the Shell Clinic, he repeated his question: why did it take so long to present Chinazam for medical examination? Stella explained again how she had been told at the same clinic a fortnight earlier that the boy was fine.
“This appendix is inflamed and we have to take it out now,” the surgeon was quoted as declaring.
“Now?”
“Yes!”
Since the Shell office of the Okolis was inside the same Industrial Area complex with the Shell clinic, Stella invited her husband Emeka over. The hospital typically didn’t conduct surgeries on Fridays, but this, according to the surgeon, was an emergency. Emeka and Stella were shocked, and uncomfortable. But, reiterating the urgency, the surgeon warned that if they opted to take their boy out of the hospital without the surgery, they had to sign that it was purely their decision.
“We were told we could return to our offices and not necessarily hang around, because it was a minor surgery that would take about 30 minutes,” Stella recalls. “We left at 2pm. At about 3:45pm, I rang his dad and we walked back to the hospital.”
KILLED — BUT ‘STILL ALIVE’
“For me — and this is even where my pain started from — Chinazam went in for the surgery at about 2pm, but from then until 7pm, nobody, I repeat nobody, said anything to us,” laments Stella. “For five hours, we were just standing, sitting, walking up and down. If any door opened, we ran there, and someone told us ‘Oh, they’re just about to finish’. And the hours went by.”
Stella and Emeka were still sitting in the visitors’ lobby when the anaesthetist, Dr. Dafe Akpoduado, exited the theatre to converse with another doctor on the phone. Unbeknownst to the anaesthetist, the Okolis were within earshot. “For the rest of my life,” says Stella, “I can never forget what I heard.”
“I no no wetin happen o,” she quoted the anaesthetist as saying in pidgin, his hands akimbo. “Na water water full everywhere o, the brain, the kidney, the this the that, na water water, I no know o, I no know wetin con happen.”
Stella stepped out to confront him, prompting the doctor to defend himself: “I was not there o; I was not part of the team; he was just giving me a handover note.”
Emeka walked across the corridor towards the theatre, asking to see his son. The surgeon, Dr. Alexander Dimoko, met him by the theatre door and told him: “Chinazam had a drug reaction but is okay now.” Stella was next to go in. Thinking her boy was dead, she “wept bitterly” until the doctor told her “no; he’s still alive”.
“What I saw on that day, may nobody ever go through this — even people who say they have enemies,” she says. “Oh Jesus! May nobody ever go through this period.”
Shortly after, Chinazam was wheeled out on some life support systems into the Intensive Care Unit as the parents looked on, while the doctors kept whispering to one another.
THREE DAYS AND NO SIGN OF LIFE
Chinazam had slipped into a medical coma, but Stella was unaware until the third day post-surgery when he still wasn’t making eye contact.
“You know, I’ve already made up my mind that I won’t stay in unforgiveness; that’s what has helped me till today,” she tells me. “If you were not sure of what happened, you didn’t need to tell me he had a drug reaction.”
From September 2 until late night of September 9, 2016, Chinazam remained in the Shell IA Clinic ICU while Emeka continued to plead for him to be flown to a trauma centre in Europe or the Americas. But Shell, in their wisdom, felt otherwise. When he was finally moved abroad in an air ambulance in the early hours of September 10, it was to South Africa.
Emeka speaks about the consequences of Shell’s pussyfooting with surefootedness. “The day this happened, I pleaded with Shell to please take this boy to a trauma centre,” he recalls. “Shell kept him in the hospital for one week before they moved him out. A neurosurgeon in Texas told me he wished he met my son within 72 hours of the surgery; he said they had a protocol that they would have activated and it would have reversed the damage.”
Emeka maintains Shell “was doing trial and error for one week” while hoping for the worst. “It appears to me that they were doing those things to wait for him to die, but he didn’t die,” he says.
And this was where Shell started to falter. If what happened in the theatre was a mistake, a human error, holding him back in the hospital was a conscious decision. By failing to fly Chinazam out of the country for at least one full week, and by sending him to another African country, Shell had very intentionally violated the first item on its Commitment and Policy on Health, Security, Safety, the Environment and Social Performance (HSSE): “pursue the goal of no harm to people”.
In the hospital’s communication to the Okolis, they claimed Chinazam lost oxygen during the procedure, but they didn’t know the duration of the loss. “How is it that they had a surgeon, an anaesthetist, someone in charge of the oxygen, and a minimum of two nurses, yet nobody could say how long Chinazam lost oxygen for?” Stella wonders.
SAVING MONEY AT THE EXPENSE OF A HUMAN LIFE
Multiple occurrences after the surgery reflect deliberate parsimony by Shell, Nigeria’s oldest energy company, at the expense of Chinazam’s life. For instance, as of December 2016, three months after he was flown to South Africa, nobody from Shell had visited him to physically ascertain the quality of available healthcare and his recovery. Similarly, when his parents started to question the unavailability of certain essential services in South Africa, Shell did not take them seriously, instead waiting until forever before sanctioning a relocation to the US.
One evidence is a December 8, 2016 email to Dr. Yusuf Ibrahim, Shell Health Manager, Nigeria, in which one of Emeka’s demands was: “The immediate plans for moving Chinazam to an evidence-based Centre for brain injury rehabilitation with innovative and advanced cognitive rehabilitation protocols/interventions, CAST program including robotic therapies, electrical stimulation for gait performance and mobility, spasticity management, independent living tools and all-in-one surgery-induced brain injury management facility like the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Illinois; Kessler Brain Injury Rehabilitation Centre, New Jersey; and Good Shepherd (Pediatric) Rehabilitation, Pennsylvania, all in the USA, in conformity with especially Arcles 3 and 24 of the UN Convention on the rights of the child (CRC), as research shows that quality of care plays a significant role in patient’s recovery.”
One of Emeka Okoli’s numerous emails to Shell senior management towards getting the organisation to behave more responsibly
One of Emeka Okoli’s numerous emails to Shell senior management towards getting the organisation to behave more responsibly
Some days before 2016 Christmas, Emeka was back emailing Shell officials to again press for his son to be relocated out of South Africa, given that, the Rehabilitation Facility, one of the two hospitals where he received treatment, had been honest to the Okolis about their equipment and technology limitations, specifically admitting that their rehabilitation was “manually-driven and non-technology-aided”.
Still, Emeka began the following year by pushing for Chinazam’s exit from South Africa. In an email in which he stopped short of massaging the egos of Shell Nigeria’s decision-makers, at whose mercy he had ostensibly found himself, he wrote: “This year, my family and I would immensely appreciate your intervention now more than ever before, as the first 6 months is crucial for laying the foundation for complete recovery (4 months is now gone, on 02 Jan 2017), and the Rehabilitation Hospital in South Africa where my only son (Chinazam) is, doesn’t have all the critical expertise (e.g. Pediatric Physiatrists), technology (Robotics, Electrical stimulation, etc) and Independent Neuro-professional oversight to review/monitor key goals delivery, required to facilitate his complete recovery from this hypoxic-anoxic brain injury, and thus make him independent in the Activities of Daily Living (ADL); as enumerated for this post-ICU ‘acute to post-acute’ rehabilitation phases by the Commission for the Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) and the Brain Injury Association of America.”
One of Emeka Okoli’s numerours letters to Shell
Still, Shell did not move Chinazam to the US until March 2017
‘SHELL FOUND OUT THE TRUTH BUT HAS BEEN HIDING IT’
After the incident, Shell invited Ibironke Desalu, a professor and consultant anaesthetist at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), to probe what had transpired in the theatre on September 2, 2016. Her report, the Okolis believe, would provide evidence of the exploitation, medical negligence, torture, pain and suffering Chinazam was subjected to, leading to the brain injury. It is almost seven years after, and Shell has refused to release the report to the Okolis. Shell claims the report will not contribute to Chinazam’s health in any way. They also claim it does not form part of Chinazam’s medical report, but is only for their internal use.
But when Stella asked Dr. Ibrahim Yusuf “Do I have a right to that report, as Chinazam’s mother?”, the answer was yes.
Still, till this date, Shell continues to deny the Okolis access to the report, in clear violation of its self-designed document on ‘Patient/Family Rights In Shell Hospitals’. Of the many mouth-watering promises in that document, one stands out: “You can ask at any time what is happening to you and why. Everything will be explained to you honestly, in a manner and language you can understand.”
‘HAVE YOU EVER CRIED TEARLESS’?
Stella has cried so much the tears no longer flow
Chinazam was 10 when the surgery happened. Now 17, he has received seven straight years of care, his parents swapping roles to be by his side. As one might expect, the individual and collective toll on the Okoli family is indescribable.
“Have you ever eaten food and it was tasteless, yet you did not have COVID? Have you ever cried but tears could not come out of your eyes?” Stella asks, face sunken, voice sullen, prompting the journalist to momentarily halt the interview to shed tears of his own.
When the interview resumes, she continues: “I have experienced it. As I’m speaking with you, I am crying. But tears cannot come out of my eyes.”
Stella was primed for her Ph.D when the surgery was botched, but all that has now evaporated. For “every single day” of the four months of Chinazam’s South Africa hospitalisation, thoughts of his death flooded her mind just before she knocked on his door after arriving at the hospital from her hotel room. A child who was famed for his athleticism, who taught friends and schoolmates how to backflip and was consequently famously dubbed ‘the somersaulting master’, was now being spoken of to her mum as someone who had suffered a lifelong disability.
“He had all his dreams set up for him,” Stella recalls. “He was going to be a pilot, a footballer or a Robotics/AI Entrepreneur.”
Chinazam’s two sisters were closing in on 13 and 14 just before the surgery. A teary Stella says to care for him, she abandoned her teenage girls at the age when she should have been there for them the most. The impact of her absence, she adds, is something she is “still dealing with today”.
‘IT REALLY HURT THAT MY MUM WASN’T THERE’
Stella’s daughter still upset her mum wasn’t there for her
Those claims were corroborated by Salome, her last girl, who still nurses regrets about her mum missing numerous milestones not only in her life but in her older sister Deborah’s.
“When I achieved a great academic milestone at some point in high school, my mum wasn’t there to celebrate with me and it really hurt,” the 19-year-old college student of Public and International Law confesses. “I wouldn’t say I’ve been a stellar student — I struggled during my junior years — so the milestone upped my spirits. She also missed three of my birthdays and could only celebrate them with me in arrears, which was mostly more than two months after.”
One of Chinazam’s cousins vowed never to pray again — how can a God exist and let an innocent boy suffer a travail of this magnitude?
Stella remains inconsolable by “the fact that you have to look at your child every day, and the only communication you can make is occasionally with the eyes”.
Emeka paints a far gorier picture. “I have practically lost every single thing that has to do with freedom, because my whole life revolves around him,” he laments. “I lived with Chinazam in Texas for more than two years before I went to India with him for a treatment, then Belgium for another, then the UK.”
Emeka now has severe back ache from years of carrying his teenage son
More worryingly, Emeka currently suffers from chronic back ache due to years of carrying Chinazam. His second daughter is verging on her fourth year in university, but April was the first time he visited her in school. The first has spent four years studying Medicine, but Emeka has not yet managed to show up in her school. “This would not have happened, if not for Chinazam, as I used to be a present dad in their lives,” he maintains.
Emeka says the tragedy “has practically wrecked our lives”, leaving him clutching at survival by “talking to psychologists”. The bad news is that there is a trigger that is almost impossible to banish.
“Till date, I struggle to hold myself when I see a man playing with his son, something Chinazam and I used to do,” he says in the most emotion-laden voice you’d ever hear from a father. “It’s something I’m still learning to deal with. It’s PTSD for me; it tears me apart. But this is something I deal with every single day of my life. So my life practically has come to a standstill. And I can’t even begin to talk about closure, because I still do not know what Shell did to my son.”
FROM BANTERS TO THE COURTROOM
The Rivers State Hight Court on the morning of March 20, 2023
“Honesty, integrity and respect for people”. These three form “a set of core values” Shell boasts as “underpinning all the work we do”.
On both its Nigerian and global websites, the multinational corporation so confidently states: “The Shell General Business Principles, Code of Conduct and Ethics and Compliance Manual help everyone at Shell act in line with these values and comply with relevant laws and regulations.”
For many years, the Okolis fell for it, only recently realising that these words, especially in Shell Nigeria, were just lip service.
“Shell’s core values are honesty, integrity and respect for people, and they are ingrained in us; those values resonate with my personal value of care,” Stella says confusedly. “It never occurred to me for once that I’d ever have a conversation about Shell in this manner, much more a court dispute. But when your child is injured and he cannot talk, he cannot walk, he can’t eat, he has a G-Tube — so he cannot fight for himself — then me, as his mother, cannot advocate for him? I’d rather die. I’d rather not be alive, and I’m using very strong words.”
By Stella’s account, Shell and the Okolis were holding periodic conversations at the start. For two years, they met every Tuesday to discuss — talks that sometimes filled Chinazam’s parents with hope. Sometime in the course of those meetings, they started hearing from Shell’s representatives that Chinazam had to return to Nigeria. He was in the US at the time. They did not oppose it, but they worried about the intricacies of the relocation. How would he school, get integrated into society, or access therapy?
Shell did their survey and the Okolis theirs. School, for example, was unclear. The Okolis were managing very serious seizures for Chinazam at the time. He also was not feeding orally; just via the G-Tube. He hadn’t passed his last videostroboscopy, during which food gets put in someone’s mouth and viewed from a computer to see if they are able to cough it out if getting choked. He had suffered a bit of a neurological impairment as part of complications during that catastrophic surgery. The videostroboscopy revealed that if asleep and food goes to the wrong place, Chinazam will aspirate — the fluid goes into his lungs — and die.
Stella checked up to seven Nigeria-based schools labelled ‘inclusive’, and produced a shortlist of two. One, run by a Canadian, lacked staircase access for children in wheelchairs. Once the founder said staff carried the children up on their shoulders, Stella knew Chinazam to Nigeria couldn’t work. To ensure Chinazam’s safety, Emeka invited Shell Medical for a Risk assessment, a key requirement of the Shell’s HSSE and SP Control Framework employed in Shell Contracts, Operations and Projects to ensure Risk mitigation to the ALARP (As Low As Reasonably Practicable) criteria for People, Asset, Environment and Reputation. To Emeka’s horror, Shell continued foot-dragging and eventually frustrated the exercise.
To fend off Shell’s spirited attempts to force Chinazam back to Nigeria, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago, US, where he was receiving speech, physical, occupational, aquatic and hippo-therapy therapies, wrote a ‘To Whom It May Concern’ in March 2019, warning that “if Chinazam should return home at this time, he will have limited resources and limited access to therapy with no ability to negotiate community as well as limited access to the proper clinical specialist for his ongoing care”.
“In the immediate and short term, Chinazam has several medical appointments with Neurology and ENT, which will aid in his rehabilitation,” read the letter, signed by Gadi Revivo, DO, Attending Physician, Pediatric and Adolescent Program Rehabilitation Program. “We are recommending at least another 6 to 12 months for further evaluation and treatment.”
More than a year later, with Shell still scheming to engineer Chinazam’s return to Nigeria, Texas Children Hospital penned a similar letter, writing: “If Chinazam should return to his home country at this time, he will have limited resources and limited access to specialised neuro-rehabilitation and therapies and limited access to proper clinical specialist for his ongoing care.”
“We are recommending at least another six months for further evaluation and treatment as described above,” wrote Mariella Hillerand, MD, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Attending, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas, on July 27, 2020.
Emeka and son
Shell then began to say they would stop caring for Chinazam once he turned 21, much to the Okolis’ chagrin. At this point, the Okolis still intended to keep things civil. Stella, for example, had been at Shell since 25, working in community development, partnership development and, much later, risk management. Now 51, Shell is where she has spent all her adult life.
“This is a lifelong injury that happened in your clinic, so how can you take care of him with an existing HR policy for dependant healthcare?” Stella, now freshly annoyed, asks. “A child walked into your clinic and came out immobilised and nearly half-dead and you want to care for him on an existing HR policy? How?”
After a long period of mental torture during which the Okolis “tried to keep it gay, laugh and put a human face to it”, after every Tuesday meeting that drained Stella and left her struggling to accept that it was her child being placed on viewgraph, the Okolis shared a US-certified lifecare plan for Chinazam with Shell. This was a plan written by a licensed life care planner, but Shell held it for more than two years. By the time the Okolis got the next sniff of the plan, Shell had literally shredded it, reshuffling its tenets and changing currency conversions via unapproved, non-expert certified personnel, which would have been unthinkable and harshly punished if this had happened on a Shell Crude oil and Gas Asset operation or project environment. It was at this point the Okolis realised they had a real fight on their hands. They had no other option but to go to court. This was August 2021.
THE OKOLIS’ FIRST LAWYER ACTED COMPROMISED
One and a-half years on, the trial has not effectively started, with Shell bringing in any objection at each sitting, and the Okolis also shuffling their legal team.
“I think the first lawyer we went to court with, he compromised at some point, so we had to discontinue with him,” says Stella.
Shell had made the Okolis a monetary offer, which was instantly rebuffed, surprisingly infuriating their lawyer. They would come to meetings and their lawyer would be shouting at them. He told them they would never again, in court or out of it, get anything close to what they’d scoffed at. But the Okolis were always clear: they were not after Shell’s money.
“We told him our rejection was based on the lifecare plan; it was not based on emotion,” says Stella. “We even said to them, don’t pay us any money. Put it in a trust account and whenever Chinazam needs money, charge it from there.”
There have been many settlement meetings since Justice Elsie Thompson took over the case from Justice Weli Chechey, and the Okolis have now decided to absent themselves from further meetings because “it is so mentally draining, so painful”.
SHELL WOULD NOT BEHAVE LIKE THIS ABROAD
Asked if Shell would conduct itself differently if this happened abroad, Emeka’s answer was emphatic: “Very differently, extremely differently — because they know that they would have been confronted with the law. They have been doing this with a certain degree of we-have-been-getting-away-with-things-like-this.
“The human rights-literate public, the independent press and the stringently mature rule of law in developed economies would have held Shell so irrevocably accountable, that Shell would have had no option but to do the right thing from day one, beyond what is now evident as lip service to their Policies and Procedures on care for People.”
He recalls how he practically fought Shell to move Chinazam out of South Africa after seeing the limitations of their technology. It took Shell more than two weeks to agree with him. And when they did, Emeka himself — not Shell — handled the drudgery of finding hospitals and specialist physicians in the US and elsewhere for the oil giants to talk to.
“Shell was unwilling to follow through with the work,” says Emeka. “Again, when it was time to move him from Chicago to Texas, I also found the hospital.There were some specialists I asked them to please discuss with, but they ignored me.”
Among the things that continue to irk Emeka is Shell’s insistence, “till date”, that Chinazam had a drug reaction.
“It was further down the line that South African doctors told us this was not a drug reaction but a brain injury,” he says. “The US and UK doctors confirmed it was a brain injury — hypoxia, caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain during surgery. Shell never told us. Shell continued deceiving us that it was a drug reaction and he would be okay. But if I have to lay my life for this boy, I will. They will not get away with this.”
THE SOMERSAULTING MASTER CANNOT MOVE HIMSELF ANY LONGER ☹️
In court, Shell continues to play a conspicuous spanner-in-the-works game that any fair party can effortlessly spot. The proceedings on March 20, 2023 were a replica of FIJ’s first time in court in November 2022. Shell’s lawyer Ismail Balogun from Olaniwun Ajayi chambers was at his annoying best, often chuckling, sometimes laughing, always addressing the claimants’ lawyer Dada Awosika and everyone else with such a sense of camaraderie one would never imagine a human life is at the centre of this suit. Meanwhile, there have been multiple sittings between those two dates.
This time, just as the first, when the case was called, counsel to Shell informed the court that settlement talks were ongoing, and asked for more time; the judge adjourned the case by more than a month after confirming that the settlement had taken too long, then gave Shell more time “for the last time” to reach an out-of-court settlement otherwise the matter would proceed. Guess what? The judge had spoken in a similar tone at the preceding case in February and at FIJ’s first presence in court five months earlier!
Meanwhile, inside the hospital where he is receiving treatment, Chinazam continues to battle for his life, helped by the sterling care of dutiful nurses and doctors, and the obsessive love of his mother and father. The protocol for keeping him healthy, even comfortable, are delicate: his positioning in bed, where and how to touch him, where and how to lift him, the strengthening and positioning of his arms and elbows, how long he should lie down on a spot for, how often he should be turned every few hours, and the number and arcs of the pillows to be used to support his head, neck and legs. It is an endless cast of caregiving procedures in which every minute counts.
In FIJ’s two visits to the hospital, the delicate handling of Chinazam did not totally obliterate pain. He winced occasionally, even at the faintest of touches. Sometimes, he grunted — times when he tried relentlessly but ultimately futilely to talk. His pain in such moments is so visible one can almost touch it.
‘THE BOY CANNOT UNDERSTAND WHY HE CANNOT TALK’
It is a pain her older sister shares. “There are times I see he’s trying to talk. He knows he is trying to say something and you can see that he is frustrated or confused, and he cannot seem to understand why it’s so hard for him to talk,” says Deborah, 21, a medical student. “It’s in moments like that when I look at him and see the obvious distress he’s in that it kind of hits me that this is a really sad thing that has happened.”
Deborah considers it all very sad, knowing Chinazam “was honestly someone you couldn’t be sad around”.
“He was obsessed with my mum’s ipads… he loved games. My sister wasn’t interested in those things, so he was always bringing them to me to play with him. We used to bond over that, so we were very close,” she says of their childhood. “He was very energetic, always on the field. He was the kind of person you couldn’t stay angry with for a long time. He just had a lot of love and it was really easy to love him back because of how soft he was. Such a genuine person. He was just so sweet.”
Chinazam’s other sister, Salome, remembers him as “energetic, so full of life, musically gifted and great at Computer Science”.
“He was quite annoying sometimes, but it was endearing because he had a wholesome and overall genuinely positive aura and disposition,” she says. “No matter how many times we argued, we’d still smile and laugh afterwards and I loved it.”
Till today, Salome misses Chinazam’s “energy”. “His absence brought a lot of silence to our house after his surgery,” she laments. “The shift in our family dynamic was very conspicuous.”
Of her personal loss, she says: “The only thing I really regret is not telling him or showing him enough how much I love him. Looking into his eyes after he woke up and talking to him without him replying was quite unsettling and it made me feel like I had lost some part of my brother in a sense.”
NEVER GIVING UP
As expected, some have asked the Okolis: since Chinazam is brain-damaged, why not just let him go? Stella, first to respond, recalls being asked by someone: “Na Jesus?”
“My response to such people is that I don’t wish anyone to go through something like this,” she says with a slight shake of her head. “You know why? Talk is very cheap. So, as long as he is breathing, we would do whatever it takes, as long as it lies within our power, to give him dignity. Dignity, that’s all. Just to have dignity, which is a fundamental human right.”
Emeka is not even entertaining any other thought than seeing his son walk someday. “Science evolves every day, and I believe that science will someday find the cure for my son’s condition,” he enthuses. “However, if that doesn’t happen, I may have to sacrifice the rest of my life by enrolling in a Ph.D programme in Translational Neuroscience to personally find that cure.”
SHELL: TALK TO THE JOURNALIST IF HE’S ‘HELPFUL TO OUR CASE’
Osagie of Shell (far right) with President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019 when the President received Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of Kingdom of Netherlands
Osagie (far right) with President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019 when the President received Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of Kingdom of Netherlands
FIJ sent emails to Marno de Jong, Senior Vice President Nigeria, Shell; Osagie Okunbor, Managing Director of SPDC and Country Chair, Shell Companies in Nigeria (SCiN); Ibrahim Yusuf, Shell Health Manager, Nigeria; and Femi Oduneye, VP, Health Group, requesting for comments. Shell initially appeared ready to engage, with Bola Essien-Nelson, SCiN Media Relations Manager, writing: “I’m connecting with you with regards to your messages to Osagie Okunbor and Dr. Yusuf Ibrahim concerning the above-mentioned matter. We are working on your enquiry and will get back to you next week.”
But hours later, Essien-Nelson would send a follow-up email declining to comment. “While we note your interest and request for information as an investigative journalist, we are unable to provide any response to the questions set out in your email as the issues regarding the treatment of Master Chinazam Emeka-Okoli at SPDC’s facility is [sic] already a subject matter of an ongoing litigation. Accordingly, we are legally constrained not to make any comment or interfere with the matter that is sub-judice,” she wrote.
Her email also carried what appeared to be a veiled threat: “Please note that it will amount to flagrant interference with the administration of justice, and contempt of Court to interfere with the fair trial of the matter in Court or make public statements or comments that may jeopardise the fair trial of the matter before the Court… We trust you are properly guided as parties wait for the final determination of the matter in Court.”
Of worthy note, Essien-Nelson’s first email was a response to a forwarded email from Okunbor, which read: For your review and response to the person if deemed credible and/or helpful to our case. In simpler words, do not talk to the journalist… if he isn’t helpful to our case.
Ibironke Desalu, the chairman of the probe panel set up by Shell, also declined to talk. “No comments. The official report was submitted to Shell,” she simply said.
Speak to my lawyers, says Dr. Alexander Dimoko
The response from Dr. Alexander Dimoko was similar. “Please kindly contact my solicitors,” he said.
From Dr. Dafe Akpoduado, there was no response at all.
One person who did manage to speak with FIJ, though, is Chidi Odinkalu, a professor and former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
“It is staggering in the corporate arrogance and malpractice,” Odinkalu said. “I don’t know how these people sleep with themselves — the company executives, the doctors and their lawyers. No one wants to be human about destroying the life of this boy and hopes of his family. It is heart-rending.”
NOT THE FIRST TIME
This is not the first time Shell Nigeria is facing accusations of medical negligence and subsequent rights violations in its post-damage response. In 2009, Sheri King, a former employee, and her then 17-year-old-son Opeyemi King filed a N500m action against the oil company and one of its medical staff, Dr. Fred Eigbe, for “personal injuries, loss, pain and suffering caused by negligence of the company’s medical centre”.
In her statement of claim, King had said that having attended prenatal care at Shell Medical Centre throughout her pregnancy, she fell into labour in the early hours of November 1, 1992 and was rushed to the medical centre at 2 a.m., but there was no medical doctor, gynaecologist or obstetrician on duty to cater to the obvious emergency, and was left to the second-level medical attention of nurses/midwives who could only conduct routine procedures.
She claimed the medical officer arrived 10 hours later and physically took charge belatedly, causing the child foetus to suffer acute distress before delivery, after which the mother was transferred to LUTH for further treatment. King claims Opeyemi was subsequently unable to achieve the usual milestones of childhood, such as crawling, walking, talking and was constantly having violent convulsions, vomiting, irritability, weak muscular activity and a lack of mental capacity, for which he was taken to the Shell medical centre incessantly. When Opeyemi turned six, for example, he had never walked because his muscles had not developed.
King also said Shell invited her to sign a document absolving them of any liability for her son’s condition, but when she requested to seek advice on the contents of the document, she was denied; and when she refused to sign the document, Shell withdrew its funding of Opeyemi’s therapy.
FIJ also understands that a current Shell employee lost a child at the company clinic under questionable circumstances, but he — just like the Okolis initially did for five months — declined to speak.
WHAT THE OKOLIS WANT? JUST TWO THINGS
By Stella’s account, the first time the case got to court, Justice Weli Chechey looked at Shell’s representative and said: “Looking at you, I’m not sure you’d have the boldness to give Shell this message. However, I like Shell so much and I have read this case copiously; this is not the kind of case Shell should allow to come to court. In this kind of case, you call the parents to one side and ask them: “What do you want?”
With Shell not doing it, I ask the Okolis what they want.
“Obviously, number 1, we want the Desalu Report,” answers Stella. “Secondly, there is a lifecare plan that has been written for Chinazam. Just take care of it. We don’t want their money; just put it in a trust and let the hospital draw from it. Then pay off our legal fees – because we have been paying the lawyers.”
But this is in conflict with what Shell wants, which is not to be associated with Chinazam Okoli any longer. It is to pay the Okolis off. Forever and ever.
This article was first Published on 15th May 2023 by ‘Fisayo Soyombo on the website of The Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) – https://fij.ng/article/hell-in-shell/
His social life was blunted. Perhaps by his reticent disposition.His persona, two dimensional. To a distant public, he was upscale and cool. His manly bearing spoke loud. His onscreen image ironically amplified some idiosyncrasies; heroics, romantic adventures, and traits that did not gel with the mortal privacy that eerily define his quiet and lonely life.
Saint Obi, real name, Obinna Nwafor, was shy, almost bordering on timidity and insecurity. He cherished the pleasantly tranquil interactions among a few friends. He would vanish at any outburst that could upset the poise of such small meetings. As he repeatedly told me, he just wanted to live a cool, quiet, and fulfilled life. But, has he lived this cool and fulfilled life he envisioned? I have my doubts.
I tell Saint’s story here with painful tears in my eyes; because he was a star, a superstar whose life turned out a gleam of irony. Yet, it was this stardom that fetched him his much-professed financially strong and powerful wife. And their wedding, that solemn ritual of love would drastically alter the cause of his life and tragically yank him off the creative community that threw him up for the wife to capture and indeed conquer.
Their marriage was at best a dramatization of love. It was quick. He barely told us that he found a wife. Then, the marriage happened. It was something of a mystique, only those involved understood the histrionics that played out. None of us who were his closest pals, who walked with him through the crucible to the crest of his career in Nollywood, none of us was invited.
The distance between us and the guy I admirably called Saint of the Storm had begun. This gulf would widen with each year. We saw him perhaps once in a year after this marriage. And life actually seemed to have given him a fair shake of the dice. He dressed well, drove big cars, and even his skin, in literal lingo, spelt wellness.
The Saint would be blessed with three beautiful children. But not on one occasion were his friends in Nollywood invited for christening or birthday. We were told that his wife was of the topmost hierarchy in telecom giant, MTN. But even if their celebrations were designed to be a rendezvous of the elites of the technocracies that his wife chiefly belonged, you expected that Saint would reach out to a few of his fellow creatives, for even if they would herald his small beginnings, there could be no tinge of shame to it because we all have our journeys and our stories.
And even at that, the actor or cineaste in Nollywood is by no means poor. But more tragic is the fact that his marriage did not only take away Obinna from his friends, it took him away from Nollywood. Saint stopped acting, absconded from his career and perhaps his calling. It would seem prognostic now. Yes, because I recall leaving my house in Lagos Mainland for his massive office in Lekki, Victoria Island, Lagos. It was about six years ago. There, I demanded to know why my friend abandoned our industry. He told me with his usual shy expressions that he wanted to focus on some other businesses and also to work behind the camera.
Because his visage was unconvincing to me, I told him in stark terms, that whatever his new vision and pursuits, he must not abandon the trade that made him who he was. It took another three years for Saint to return to his homies. But when he did, some of the deeply disappointed ones sniggered behind him. This was because the simmering rumours of cracks in his marriage had hit home.
And though secretive in his ways, he knew it was time to open up. And he did. ” I do not know why my wife’s siblings see me as a gold digger. They confront me, harass and fight me in my own matrimony. And my wife did nothing to stop them. I work hard, I earn my money. I have never depended on my wife “, he lamented, eyes blurred with tears.
You could tell he was in deep pain. By the next visit, the Saint returned with a deep cut from knife on his left eye. His wife’s brothers, he said, scaled the wall fence of their house to attack him. They were captured by hidden closed-circuit television, CCTV, installed for surveillance and security, he revealed. He reported them at the police station and subsequently acquired a gun to defend himself.
This effectively marked the beginning of the end of his marriage and perhaps Saint Obi’s long walk to a sad end. He moved out of his marital home to a new house to begin the reconstruction of his destiny, alone without his wife and worse still without his three beautiful children.
Meanwhile, his wife went to the police to defend her siblings using her financial power to manipulate the cause of justice, Saint stated unequivocally. The wife also sued for divorce, not in Lagos, but in Ogun state. As Saint put it, “It was to make the journey difficult for me.
But I will not bend neither will I break. I will fight with my last blood to take custody of my children. They love me and they know it will be hard for me to live without them. The divorce is not an issue. My marriage has long been over “, he said with a mix of courage and a quaky heart that betrayed his distress.
About mid-last year, however, Obinna took ill. But he told no one. He simply became scarce. He was in and out of hospital, we would later learn. He sold two of his three big SUVs to take proper care of his health and to acquire six Camry cars he’d use for Uber. But his vanishing health continued unabated. He seemed to have a premonition of his own passing as he wept repeatedly about not seeing his children.
He emaciated. Life took a grim picture. When I saw him by chance in January 2023, the dude called Saint looked 15 years older than his age. His macho cut had shrunk. His fat wallet was gone. What was left was only his fat will. His eyes seemed lost in their socket. This would be the last time I would see him.
Saint snuck out of Lagos to hang in with his sister in Jos. He told no one. But a month ago, in April precisely, the once delightful actor who brought joy to many a home broke his icy silence. He called our mutual friend in the US to give him a devastating message. He was on a deathbed, he said, and wanted our friend to pray for him. ” It’s not looking good, pray, pray for me “, he appealed passionately.
His next call came on May 1, 2023. This time to his mentor, the man who made him a star with his productions, Zeb Ejiro, OON. He told him with a wavering voice that he had had three surgeries but was still in hospital in Jos. He averred again that his situation was not looking good, that he is also in a deep pain, distressed that he could not see his children. But still, he begged him not to tell anyone about his ailment.
Such was the life of this creative hermit, a lonely trouper. I was the first to hear the news of his death late on Sunday, May 7. Having confirmed it, I called Zeb Ejiro. ” I have a very bad news my brother, Zeb “, I began. ” What is it, what is it, “, he asked anxiously. “A big star has fallen in Nollywood “. Zeb broke down in tears. I hadn’t said who it was. But sobbing helplessly now, he said, ” Don’t tell me it is Saint Obi “. Sadly, he was right.
About 15 persons and a staff member of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, have been abducted by gunmen at the 1,000 Housing Estate along Pegi community in the Kuje Area Council of the FCT.
PUNCH reports that the gunmen stormed the estate at about 11:30 pm on Sunday, shot sporadically, and abducted persons returning home from work.
The chairman, of the Pegi Residents Association, Taiwo Aderibigbe, disclosed the development to journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, adding that among the persons abducted is a staff of the FCT Department of Development Control under the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council.
Aderibigbe said, “Gunmen abducted 15 persons along the abandoned 14 kilometers Pegi road, out of those kidnapped is one Shuaibu Musa, a staff with the FCTA.
“We also observed that the husband of the woman who sells second-hand clothes at the main entrance to the estate was among the people kidnapped while they were returning from work.
“The kidnappers have not contacted the families of those abducted at the moment, but we are still trying to identify other residents abducted.”
The FCT Police Public Relations Officer, SP Josephine Adeh did not respond to inquiries about the incident as of press time, despite telephone calls, SMS, and WhatsApp messages sent by our correspondent.
Meanwhile, reacting to the incident, following an inquiry by journalists on Tuesday, the Director, of the FCT Department of Development Control, Mukhtar Galadima said, “The kidnap incident is true, one of our drivers, Shuaibu Musa, was among the abductees, and he is yet to be released.”
Last month villagers in the Kwali area council of the Federal Capital Territory were gripped with terror after gunmen kidnapped 29 residents in a night raid.
On Wednesday 26th April, residents of the area recounted how the armed gang invaded the community on the night of Tuesday 25th to abduct villagers.
Bandits activities have been active in Nigeria’s North-west and parts of the FCT. But details on the clear identity and motivation of the Kwali attackers have been slow to emerge.
Zubairu Yewuti, a community leader in Kwali, said his younger brother and two of his elder brothers’ wives were kidnapped in his family house.
The kidnappers operated for three straight hours after combing eight houses to whisk 29 people away, according to a report by Daily Trust.
Women and children were among the victims of the abductors. Daniel Ishaku, another local in the area, told The Associated Press the terrorists rounded up the village of their targets and waylaid some locals returning from a ceremony in the area.
“They took people from the playground and then went into the houses,” Mr Ishaku was quoted to have said. “They entered the bush with the people they carried walking on foot.”
The assailants were said to have divided themselves into groups, shooting while they executed their abduction mission.
By name, some of the victims of the midnight abductions include Idris Mohammed, Abdullahi Zubairu, Sani S. Magani, Peter Modu, Ibrahim Mamman, Yellow Abdulrasheed, Musa Suleiman, Simbiya Ishaku, Sumaiya Ibrahim, Muktari Yunusa and Mohammed Yeluwa and Rahmat Shagari, among others.
PREMIUM TIMES contacted Josephine Adeh, the spokesperson to the FCT Police, for an official confirmation of the attack. Speaking by phone, she said she had not been briefed on the attack. She pledged to get back to the reporter but failed till nightfall. A follow-up call and texts were also not returned.
Firstly, let me thank God that we are not planning the funeral of Seun Fela Kuti at this moment. Actually, in other ages and times in our recent history, the scenario that would have played out would have been rather grim.
SEUN KUTI is the most lucky of the Kuti family of three generations going back to the 60s and 80s. When his famous grandmother was brutally assaulted and thrown out of the top floor window by rogue soldiers during the military regime of General Olusegun Obasanjo, the poor old lady didn’t do anything untoward or take matters into her own hands. When Seun’s father, our own beloved Abami Eda, the Afro music grand master himself was routinely arrested, brutalised, and incarcerated, Fela never took matters into his hands by assaulting anyone. Imagine that Seun had thrown such a tantrum back in the day, he would have been long forgotten. So yes, he is the luckiest of his clan.
I AS HE ESCAPED BEING SHOT during THE ASSAULT on a law officer, we should commend the POLICE OFFICER involved and call on the IGP to promote him 2 STEPS AT LEAST.
Now having said that, let me say that I watched with dismay a viral video of Seun, son of our Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti, violently assaulting a policeman on the streets of Lagos. I understand his wife and kids were in the car watching the conduct of their husband and father. I usually try to avoid being drawn into people’s private lives but this one is one that is no more a private matter as it involves the policeman in uniform in the full glare of the public.
Let me also say this right away, elsewhere on planet Earth, even in the so-called advanced nations, Seun Kuti would have been shot dead if that drama had played out anywhere in the USA, UK, or continental Europe. That Seun escaped to tell the story has both positives and negatives at the same time.
Let me start with the positives. Of course, human life is precious and whenever or however it’s preserved must be celebrated. Today Seun would have been just another part of the frightening statistics of decomposing bodies in the morgue and awaiting postmortem and funeral. There will be debates, lawyers will argue on both sides, committees would be set up, white papers would have been released but none of those would have brought him back to life.
The second positive we must acknowledge is the courage of that Policeman who had uncommon restraint and unparalleled candour and decorum in the face of that beastly, cowardly, and totally unjustified attack despite such violence unleashed on his person. Thirdly the officers who witnessed the event must be commended for exercising restraint and not rushing to subdue Seun, which was surprising anyway.
Finally on the positive is to commend the Police high command for the good work they are doing in order to instill discipline in the rank and file, including officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force.
Having said that let me look at the flip side of that coin. Firstly, Seun Kuti just cheated death by the whiskers and is extremely lucky to be alive. Others were not so lucky. People who have been gunned down in cold blood in the recent past never had the effrontery or temerity to assault a policeman. To talk about ‘Human Rights’ tongue in cheek while trampling on the rights of others is truly disconcerting and hypocritical. Your right to thump your nose or stretch your arms stops where the next man’s elbow is. It was truly annoying watching Seun ranting about ‘Human Rights’ when he was clearly the aggressor and assailant. We should apportion blames justly no matter whose ox is gored. Seun truly went overboard and we all must condemn him.
Furthermore, its foolhardiness and indeed pure insanity, to attack an armed Policeman or other law enforcement personnel in the name of Human rights.
I say so because, under our body of laws, the right to life is secured and provided for under section 33(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). This right is so important that it is number one of the entire bundle of rights known as Fundamental Rights – which bundle of Rights is secured and contained in Chapter IV of our Constitution.
For the avoidance of doubt let me categorically state that the right to life is not absolute but can be lawfully denied, cut short, or dispensed with in certain instances and it would be perfectly and legally in order Section 33(2) of the 1999 Constitution provides a string of exceptions to that general rule in section 33(1) on the sanctity of human life and the circumstances under which a citizen may be lawfully deprived of his or her life. So legally you can be killed and nothing will happen to your killer.
A hangman putting a condemned man to death at the gallows or an executioner taking aim as part of a firing squad are obvious cases. One of the circumstances where someone can be killed lawfully is where the killer was trying ‘to prevent the person from committing a crime’ or in the defence of life or property’, which falls squarely into the category that played out in the Seun Kuti case.
If a trigger-happy policeman in the vicinity had shot at Seun so as to “prevent him from assaulting a colleague”, a close reading of the Constitution seems mostly like those live rounds would have been justified
Seun Kuti must understand that it’s not bravery to engage in such conduct and that the police will be happy to use him as a scapegoat after the humiliation of the #ENDSARS riots and he has himself to blame.
I think the policeman involved ought to be rewarded for his handling of the encounter and Seun Kuti must be punished to serve as a deterrent. Quite frankly he could have been dead.
The Nigeria Police is the Lead Law Enforcement Agency in Nigeria. The Police Act, 2020 gives the police enormous powers in crime detection, prevention and investigation, including the power to stop and Search persons/vehicles. Section 50 (4) of the Police Act. 2020.
provides that “For any police officer to exercise the power to stop and search, he shall be in uniform or visibly wear a valid police identity card”.
Just few days ago, a video went viral about Seun Kuti, the son of the Afrobeat legend, late Fela Anikulapo Kuti and a nephew to Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti, Professor Olukoye Kuti and Professor Wole Soyinka. This is a family of legends and therefore, etiquette, decorum and responsible behaviour should not be lacking at all. Seun Kuti was allegedly shown in the video confronting a uniformed police officer, shouting at him, pushing him and landing a thunderous slap on the Police Officer’s face. Throughout the incident, the said Police Officer never retaliated but was calm. Very uncharacteristic of the average Nigerian police officer that we all know, who derive immense joy in the brutalization and harassment of innocent citizens; but not this particular officer. The officer deserves the commendation of all Nigerians.
The video also showed a lady coming out from Seun Kuti’s car telling him to calm down but Seun Kuti ordered her back into the car while he continued the assault and show of shame. Subsequently, another video emerged where Seun Kuti boasted about his prowess in slapping police officers and that he will continue slapping them. I could not believe what I was watching. I had thought that being educated should make a person to be civilized and have good manners but I was apparently wrong. Seun Kuti is educated and well-travelled too. I doubt if he can slap a Policeman in the United States or in the U.K., without losing his life or serving a life term.
I attended Reverend Kuti Memorial Grammar School, Abeokuta founded by the great Reverend Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, the pioneer Principal of Abeokuta Grammar School. The slapping incident is an embarrassment to the Kuti family and the alumni of the Kuti citadel of education.
Section 98 of the Nigeria Police Act, 2020 provides that “A person who assaults, obstructs or resists a police officer in the discharge of his duty or aids or incites any other person to assault, obstruct or resist a police officer or other person aiding or assisting the police officer in the discharge of his duty, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of N500, 000 or imprisonment for a term of six months or both”. I will not be surprised if the Nigerian Police Force combs all the statute books for the offence that will carry the harshest punishment, to act as a deterrent to other would-be potential ‘slappers’. The possibility of the assaulted officer filing a civil action and claiming huge damages is real and Seun may end up paying heavily for this avoidable indiscretion of his..
The Inspector General of Police has directed a thorough investigation of the incident and prosecution of the offender if found wanting. Femi Falana, SAN and Olumide Fusika, SAN, two prominent human rights activists have been reported to be the lawyers representing him. This is not unusual; until a court convicts Seun Kuti for the offence of assault or any crime charged, the law still presumes him innocent.
SomberTuesday! The transition is progressing and the inauguration is fast approaching. The lawsuits challenging the election results are also ongoing. Nigeria continues to lag behind countries like Rwanda, South Africa, Namibia, Senegal, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Cabo Verde, Burundi, Tanzania, Cameroon, Uganda, South Sudan, Chad, Zimbabwe, Guinea, Angola, Mali, Djibouti, Niger, Lesotho, São Tomé and Principe, Malawi, Seychelles, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Mauritius, Burkina Faso, Somalia, Togo, Madagascar, Comoros, Gabon, Zambia, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Eswatini, Congo Brazzaville, Botswana, Liberia, Gambia, and Benin in the percentage of women in government.
In spite of having a gender policy that aspires for 35% women’s participation, Nigeria has a paltry 3.5% of the National Assembly members as women.
In a country with youths as majority of its citizens, and with so many poor people, Nigeria has an oligarchic gerontocracy in power. The people living with disabilities are also excluded from political power.
INEC needs to be strengthened to work more efficiently and effectively as an election management body committed to electoral integrity and the conduct of free, fair, and credible elections.
Democracy remains a dream deferred. Nation-building should be prioritized, with all Nigerians guaranteed the full rights of citizenship and more commitment to unity. We should have new currency but extreme scarcity caused so much chaos and confusion that old notes are now being used to fill the gap. The new notes are yet another dream deferred. Network problems plague the efforts to complete bank transactions. Economic recovery remains elusive, and the masses hope that the struggle to survive would not consume them.
Democracy should be representative but Nigeria is an exemplar of exclusionary politics. Numerous Nigerian youths hope to japa–leaving the country by any means necessary for what they believe are better opportunities abroad. They are exasperated by the dominance of the octogenarians on the social, political, and economic systems.
Insecurity, abductions, and kidnappings remain serious problems. Nigerian political institutions, infrastructure, and social services need to be strengthened to perform optimally. High unemployment and underemployment should be seriously addressed. Decent jobs for all should be a priority. Commitment to developing a social contract between Nigerian people and leaders should also be a national priority. So should genuine democracy and economic development, personal and human security, including the well-being and welfare of citizens and the masses’ ability to meet their basic needs. Nigerians can work together to achieve a positive transformation.
#EndSARS youth protesters found the 2023 elections wanting because it failed to meet the integrity criterion. #EndSARS demonstrations in 2020 had called for good governance, an end to police brutality, extortion, impunity, economic inequality, marginalization, targeting of youths and other minorities, and cessation of political violence. These are all conditions that deepen democracy. Instead, they were subjected to state-sponsored brutality and suppression. As is usual, and contrary to democratic values, complaints and protests are attributed to foreign influence and categorized as unpatriotic.
Nigerians should learn “never again” lessons from the 2020 Lekki massacre. #LekkiTollGate & other locations. Nigerians deserve unity, peace, democracy, and sustainable development. Kleptocracy has been ruinous, threatening contemporary human security and potentially damaging to the prospects of future generations having access to the resources that they need to not only survive but thrive. If we desire transformation, we should all get to work to create a Nigeria that works for all citizens. It may be difficult but it’s possible.
Howard Zinn’s statement is very relevant to our country:
“Civil disobedience, that’s not our problem. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while, the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.”
Like a voice in the wilderness, I repeat:
Let the kleptocrats give back our stolen wealth so that we can fix our infrastructure, schools, hospitals, and also offer worthwhile social protection to our people. Let the masses enjoy the full benefits of citizenship in Nigeria. Let the leaders and political class repent and build peace with justice.
This is no time for politics as usual. The people elected should be those trusted to bring justice, equity and human security to the entire country, not expedient, unethical, and egocentric individuals determined to dominate for self aggrandizement or sectional gain. We don’t need oligarchs’ continued domination. We also need a government that puts the interests of majority of citizens first. I hope this happens in my lifetime.
Prof. Mojúbàolú Olufúnké Okome is a professor of political science at Brooklyn College in New York.
I watched with shock, disbelief, bewilderment, amazement, and chagrin, a viral video where Afrobeat rising star, who should otherwise be the product of a rich heritage of revolutionary struggles, patriotism and selflessness, descended on a cultured policeman, assaulting him, provoking him and in that process also humiliating him and the agency that he represents. The barbarism of Seun Kuti’s unprovoked attacks on that policeman is totally condemnable, undeserving, egregious and a blatant violation of one of the most noble institutions of democracy. We cannot find any justification for that cruel and degrading treatment. Legally speaking, it constitutes grave assault on and a gross violation of section 34 of the 1999 Constitution, which states clearly that:
(1) Every individual is entitled to respect for the dignity of his person, and accordingly – (b) no person shall be subject to torture or inhuman and degrading treatment.”
Culturally, I do not know anywhere in Yorubaland, where the junior corrects and upraids the elder, to the shameful extent that Seun Kuti arrogated to himself an inexistent power of rebuke, of correction and of censoring a law enforcement officer on lawful duty. It is simply unacceptable. Where did Seun get the training that he is the one better placed to correct an elder? Is he tapping from any other source different from the one that our revered and polished Fela did? Is he not a student of history, to know that his father, Fela, was one of the most successful activists of all times, correcting the ills of the society, holding governments accountable and advocating for democracy and good governance through his music? Did Seun ever hear Femi Kuti or Yeni Kuti, ever desecrating the institutions of democracy? Or is it Nike or Lande, all whom have kept the good name and reputation of their family? Is this the way Seun wants to avenge the brutal murder and assassination of Madam Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, whose blood flows in government house till date? How many of the “unknown soldiers” would Seun be able to slap and beat up in this dastardly manner?
The Ransome-Kuti family has a place in the rich history of Nigeria, through the indelible contributions of their matriarch, Madam Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, the selfless sacrifices of Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, the tireless struggles of Dr. Bekololari Ransome-Kuti and of course the inimitable Abami Eda himself, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. They represented the best of nobility, excellence, patriotism and industry, which is why Nigerians hold them so dearly in their hearts. There is no place in that family for this malady.
From all accounts, Seun is well-read, having passed through the prestigious University of Lagos. He is also well traveled, as an international artiste who has performed in several countries of the world. He is deemed to be well organized and should know the value placed upon institutions and their personnel, himself being the leader of the famed Egypt 80 Band. So he cannot claim not to know about civility and respect for the rule of law and due process. Before now, Seun had portrayed himself as an activist, an advocate of good governance and a model for the young generation. What message then is he preaching to the same people and system that he has criticized so often? What was the basis of the #EndSars struggle for the eradication of all forms of human rights abuses by the police and other law enforcement agencies? Seun should be in the same age bracket with Mark Zuckerberg who is influencing the entire world positively. Without doubt, no form of gangsterism should be perpetrated or tolerated under the guise of youthful exorbitance or exuberance or else society will collapse and become unsafe for all lawful and peaceful persons who have no other “spirits” to depend upon like Seun, who has been busy promoting the uncensored consumption of weed and alcohol, all in the name of some undefined social crusade.
The defence of Seun for this uncultured display of arrogance is that the policeman attempted to kill himself and his family. He was careful not to elaborate on the circumstances and facts of the alleged attempt. He claimed that he has the video of the attempt and that the policeman was wrong, has acknowledged his error and had even apologized to him in order to evade prosecution! What a world! Is Seun speaking to his fans in Kalakuta Republic/African Shrine? Or members of the Egypt 80 Band? The video that I saw showed Seun launching unprovoked verbal assault on a policeman that was calm and respectful, it showed an unrestrained young man castigating, threatening and humiliating an officer of the Federal Republic in the name of defending himself. The video showed Seun pushing the policeman around, daring him to do his worst and refusing to be placated by other motorists who stopped to broker peace. And it was on the Third Mainland Bridge, with the attendant consequences of the dangers to motorists, traffic congestion and other distractions.
The other day, it was Burna Boy, who stormed a nightclub in Lagos and after his acts physically assaulted a policeman. Then again it was recently the turn of one Portable, who also assaulted a policeman. Should it be the other way round, for any policeman to dare beat up or assault a celebrity then the heavens would have fallen. This unfortunate event brings into focus the value and virtue of stardom, which dictate humility, gentleness, moderation and respect for people and institutions. No positive lesson can be passed from the assault of Seun against the policeman and no defence can be offered to diminish the seriousness of the offence thus committed. And this is why the decision of the police to investigate this incident is very laudable and encouraging. If found culpable, Seun should not walk away with this barbaric act.
But beyond Seun, Burna Boy and Portable, this event has also brought into the limelight the need for the improvement of the welfare and working conditions of police officers nationwide to avoid this ugly situation whereby they become vulnerable victims of servitude, abuses and debasement. We have heard of stories of police officers who were treated as maids by the VIPs to whom they were attached, the recent one being that of the policewoman in Ilorin who was beaten and battered for allegedly refusing to run menial errands for her mistress. Situations in which police officers have to beg, crow and scout for money to pay the school fees of their children, money to take care of their health or even to buy uniform and the basic implements of their trade are totally unacceptable. Nigeria does not have up to one million police personnel so why is it so difficult to cater for the ones we have, who are daily sacrificing their lives to keep us safe?
The rise to stardom should not and cannot be the justification for unbridled brigandage and infantile gangsterism such as we saw in the video circulating of and concerning Seun. Or else it would then mean that those in the entertainment world should take urgent steps to enact such rules of engagement that will guarantee respect for other members of the society that they interact with on a daily basis. Fame cannot be the reason for assaulting a policeman and those employed to defend us cannot suddenly become victims of youthful aggression. If we condemned police brutality we must also dissociate ourselves from civilian rascality or blatant criminality. It is commendable that Seun has surrendered himself to the police as he promised. The nation eagerly awaits the outcome of the investigation of the police on this matter while commending the maturity of the policeman involved in this unfortunate incident.
After emerging as winner in the 2021 Jollof Faceoff Competition, she became the Nigerian Jollof Rice Queen.
Today with 100 hours of cooking time under her belt, Nigerian chef, Hilda Effiong Bassey, popularly known as Hilda Baci is set to become the first person on planet Earth that has ever cooked for that length of time in a stretch!
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo reacting via his Twitter handle, Osinbajo described her feat as an extraordinary achievement.
He wrote, “Hilda, 100 hours! Wow 🤩
“Congratulations on breaking the Guinness World Record for the “longest cooking marathon by an individual”. What an extraordinary achievement! We are all immensely proud of you.”
Although Hilda had initially set 96 hours for herself to beat the current record holder, Chef Lata Tondon who is at 87 hours and 45 minutes in India in 2019, she extended it by 4 hours to hit a hundred cooking hours.
At the Amore Gardens, Lekki, where the cook-a-thon took place, the chef flew past both the world record and the 96 hours she initially set for herself at about past 8 pm Monday evening to achieve the world record, cooking for 100 hours.
The actress and TV producer who cooked over 200 recipes and fed over a thousand people did well to showcase her culinary skills using various local and intercontinental recipes to put Nigeria on the global culinary map.
Over the last four days, which started on the 11th to the 15th of May, the 27-year-old made delicacies from Nigerian cuisines.
The attempt also saw Hilda take an hour break in-between every 12 hours of cooking.
The four-day cooking marathon, which began on Thursday at 4 p.m., featured celebrity visitations from Tiwa Savage, Banky and Adesua Wellington, Teni the entertainer, Spyro, Lagos state Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, networking, games, and brand activations.
Hilda who has shown her culinary skills on various Television Cook shows, represented Nigeria at the Jollof Faceoff Competition in 2021 and emerged as the winner.
The Lagos-based chef began the competition on Thursday after she turned on her cooker at 4 pm and surpassed the current world record holder on Monday morning.
If certified after the 100th hour, she will be displacing the current world record holder, Lata Tondon, an Indian chef who achieved the feat in 2019 with 87 hours 45 minutes record uninterrupted cooking.
Not long ago, news broke about the alleged murder of a legal practitioner, Godwin Ikoiwak, by his wife Abasiesebanga Ikoiwak, also a lawyer and staff member of the Court of Appeal Calabar Division.
The 41-year-old Ikoiwak was until his death a staff member of the Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Justice.
Although trial has commenced at the High Court of Justice in Uyo, Law & Society gathered that in what is apparently an attempt to scuttle the case of the state prosecution against six Defendants standing trial for the murder of the late principal state counsel, two important documents have gone missing in the Court’s file. Meanwhile, two other suspects, Udeme Patrick Umoh and Isaiah Gideon Isaiah are still at large.
The documents are a copy of the downloaded WhatsApp conversation between the fourth defendant – Dr. Imoh Johnson and the sixth defendant – Dr. Isaac Njoku, both of the St. Luke’s Hospital, Anua Uyo; and the Investigation Officer’s report by the DSS.
These documents were said to have been served on parties who admitted same in their possession. The discovery that the said documents were missing came last month when the prosecution sought to tender them through the DSS officer who investigated the matter.
The initial assumption was that they may have been misplaced in the course of moving court files to a nearby court Hall to create room for the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal. The matter was then adjourned to May 2, 2023, to enable the clerks of court search for them.
The late Barr. Godwin Ikoiwak
The prosecution led by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Barr David Umoren had earlier hinted that failure to locate the documents by the next adjourned date, the state will be left with the option of tendering the CTC of the ones in the DSS file.
The WhatsApp conversation had indicated that three defendants – Dr. Imoh Johnson, Rev Father Gabriel Ekong, and Dr. Isaac Njoku of St. Luke’s Hospital were aware that the deceased died outside the hospital when they conspired to create a hospital record to indicate that he died in the hospital following treatment for asthma.
The conversation also indicated that they deliberately shopped for a pliant nurse codenamed “Ette” who will make false statements to the police at Ikot Akpanabia after the first nurse refused to comply.
Here are extracts from the conversation:
DR ISAAC NJOKU at 7.58 pm:
“Good evening doc. I spoke with father and he said you should hold on that the woman will call you and finalize the discussion. She is trying to see if she can find another nurse who can bear that title ette and testify to the police.”
DR IMOH JOHNSON replied by 8.27 pm:
“I called him and told I’m not proceeding further. I’m in damage control mode now.”
DR NJOKU two minutes later by 8.29 pm:
“ok, but has the woman called you?”
DR IMO JOHNSON:
“Yes. She is saying she’ll work.”
There are two DSS reports. The first is dated May 25, 2022, and titled:
INVESTIGATION OFFICER’S REPORT ON THE DEATH OF GODWIN AKPAN IKOIWAK ESQ. while the second is dated June 10, 2022, and titled:
INVESTIGATION OFFICER’S REPORT ON THE REQUEST TO FURTHER INVESTIGATE THE DEATH OF GODWIN IKOIWAK BY THE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE AKWA IBOM STATE.
Both reports are reportedly thorough and contain detailed call data analysis of the deceased and his wife Abasiesebanga Ikoiwak telephone conversation “to ascertain locations, contacts, and communications between the deceased, his wife, and the management of St. Luke’s Hospital, Anua Uyo as well as the GSM numbers of relatives and associates of both the deceased and his wife, from 19th January 2022 through 27th April 2022.” Both reports totaled 27 pages in all (14 & 13 respectively)
Some of the facts revealed by the call data analysis included that, on January 20, 2022, the wife of the deceased did not only send text messages to Rev Father Maurice Mbeke but that the duo had also exchanged lengthy calls.
When the matter came up on May 2nd, 2023 and it was certain that these documents were not in the court’s file, the state tendered their CTC but the defense opposed their admissibility as exhibits. The state insisted that having not denied being served and its authenticity, and having been duly certified, the court should admit the documents as exhibits.
Ruling on its admissibility or otherwise has been adjourned to June.
According to a Facebook post made by the deceased University of Calabar classmates —Justice4Bugzy, on 22 September 2022: “The chemical known as ORGANOPHOSPHATE particularly DIMETHOATE is used as an insecticide/nerve agent and it is a very powerful and toxic weapon. It is the paramount composition of the popular rat poison called ‘Sniper.’
“When used as a weapon and administered on a person, it poisons the system within seconds, one would typically experience increased saliva and tear production, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, sweating, muscle tremors, weakness, and asphyxiation, the state of oxygen deprivation at this point death is certain.
“Autopsy revealed that the above-named toxic substance formed the content of his stomach causing his death. He was held down, bound hands and feet and thoroughly beaten, then forced to ingest this deadly substance and the people he loved and cared for and called his in-laws watched him struggle like a rat in pain until he died the most painful, heartbreaking, lonely and gruesome death.
“The brutal and senseless murder of this young man was perpetrated by a congregation of conscientious less inhuman characters who planned and amateurly executed this heinous crime in order to cover up a DIRTY FAMILY SECRET.
The level of wickedness exhibited by this horrible family and their co-conspirators exemplifies a mental disregard for justice, righteousness, truth, honor, virtue; evil in thought and life; depravity; and ultimately criminality.
“This woman watched and supervised her husband’s death without even imagining for one second the magnitude of the repercussion that is now her reality.
“Bugzy’s murderers will never escape the hammer of justice.
Every single person who participated in this transaction will face the full extent of the law and will be punished according to his/her role. There is no hiding place for the wicked and all evildoers.
“We are awake to the knowledge that every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”
“The quest for #justice4baugzy is an unending drive, a solemn promise, and action by a fine country of his loved ones from all over the world. There is no rest until JUSTICE IS DONE AND IS SEEN TO HAVE BEEN DONE.
A friend and classmate of the deceased at the Faculty of Law, University of Calabar, Barrister Sunny Anyanwu informed an Uyo High Court the deceased told him in a phone conversation days before his death that he and his wife, Barrister Abasiesebanga Ikoiwak were having issues over infidelity.
He said the deceased hinted him that he reported the matter to his wife’s family who invited him to a meeting in their family compound in Nung Udoe Itak, Ikono Local Government Area, but did not return home alive.
Barr. Anyanwu who is the 7th prosecution witness in the matter, also said that late Barrister Godwin Ikoiwak told him that his wife, Barrister Abasiesebanga Ikoiwak was having a sexual relationship with her former boss, a legal practitioner, Barrister C.I. Odoh.
He said the deceased husband told him that his wife had stayed with a Catholic priest, Rev. Father Maurice Mbeke as a house help in the Convent and the Catholic priest impregnated her and they had a child who is now 19 years old named after his maternal grandfather.
According to the prosecution witness, late Barrister Ikoiwak did not know that the boy who has been living with him in his house for a year, was his wife’s own, because the wife said the child was her younger brother.
He said the deceased told him that each time his wife said she was pregnant, he does not set his eyes on her, until after the delivery of the baby, when she will present it to him and say: “This is your child”.
The prosecution team led by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Akwa Ibom State, Barr. Joseph Umoren tendered the audio recordings of the phone conversation between the witness and the late Barrister Godwin Ikoiwak as an exhibit which was admitted in evidence after the audio was played in the open Court without any objection by the defendant’s counsel.
The wife of the deceased, Barrister Abasiesebanga Ikoiwak is standing trial alongside her mother, 66-year-old Margaret Patrick Umoh, her brother, Owoidoho Patrick Umoh, a Catholic priest, 51-year-old Reverend Father Gabriel Ekong, and a medical doctor, Isaac Njoku who are charged issuing false report on the cause of death of Barrister Godwin Ikoiwak.
Justice Bassey Nkanang of Akwa Ibom State High Court, Uyo has however granted bail to four of the six Defendants. Two others remain behind Bars.
Those granted bail included the three medical officers of St Luke’s Hospital Anua, Uyo. The charges against them include Accessory after the fact of murder, conspiracy to effect unlawful purpose, and issuance of false certificate by a public Officer.
They are, Dr Imoh Johnson – 4th Defendant, Rev Father Gabriel Ekong – 5th Defendant, and Dr Isaac Njoku – 6th Defendant. The three were alleged to have conspired with the wife of the late lawyer, Mrs Abasieseabanga Godwin Ikoiwak “on or before the 21st day of January 2022 at St Luke’s Hospital Anua Uyo to issue a medical report stating that Barr Godwin Ikoiwak was admitted, examined and treated of respiratory difficulty arising from asthma at the emergency unit of the Hospital before he died.”
“The facts”, according to the charge sheet, “were to their knowledge false in its material particulars”.
They were granted bail in the sum of two million naira each with sureties in like sum who must reside and own landed property within Uyo judicial division.
The judge insisted that sureties must swear to an affidavit of means of livelihood, and deposit two recent passport photographs, a national identity card, voters card, or international passport with the court, while the Defendants must also deposit two recent passport photographs and disclose to the court their functional GSM number.
Of the first to third Defendants who are charged with the murder, only the second Defendant, Margaret Patrick Umoh – the mother inlaw was granted bail on health grounds. The first Defendant Mrs. Abasieseabanga Godwin Ikoiwak – wife, and third Defendant Owoidoho Patrick Umoh – sister-in-law are to remain in the correctional center pending the determination of the charges against them.
In concluding cross-examination of PW 1 – Dr Emeka Nwafor the Histopathologist who conducted the autopsy by Barr C I Odo, Dr Nwafor admitted that Asthma and a “chokehold to the neck can cause reduced flow of oxygen to the brain which may lead to death.”
However, he explained that “in the case of a chokehold to the neck, a pathologist will see specific evidence or signs on the neck, mouth, nose, and internal organs,” just like asthma will show specific evidence.
He explained to the court that the circumstance of the deceased in the case is different because the cause of Asphyxia which led to his death was the result of “vomited stomach content in a background of toxic level of organophosphate.”
When asked the reason his report did not explain how the deceased came into contact with the substance and did not also include the chemical analysis of the cause of death, the Pathologist responded, “It is not my job to state how the deceased came into contact with the substance, whether by dermatologic contact or ingestion… My report did not contain chemical analysis because I am not a toxicologist. The toxicologist issued the analysis which I used to tie up my report.”
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