A grieving mother, Oluebube Obasi, has urged the Nigeria Police Force to cause an autopsy to be carried out on the remains of her four-year-old son, Samuel, to ascertain the cause of his death while at his father’s place on holiday.
The lady dashed to the Advocate for Children and Vulnerable Persons Network seeking justice over the incident that happened last year.
Since the death of the child, there have been accusations and counter-accusations between Oluebube and her estranged lover, Silas Sampson Enefiok, who is the father of the late child.
Harmony Tache, a worker with the ACVPN, has been following up with the case.
Tache said that to stop the accusations and counter accusations between Oluebube and Enefiok, it was better for both to halve the autopsy money.
According to Enefiok, this year, he buried two elders in his family and spent a whopping amount of money as the first child in his family.
Tache suggested that seeing that Enefiok had spent so much on burial, coupled with a police case that started last year and still counting, Oluebube should contribute part of the money, maybe N100,000, while Enefiok contributes N150,000 to make up the total N250,000 demanded by the police for the autopsy.
“The final solution is for there to be peace between them, and the only way for peace to reign, is for Oluebube’s wish to be granted, which is that she wants an autopsy to know the cause of the death of her son,” said Tache.
Oluebube disclosed that she could not pursue the matter last year with the vigour it demanded because she just had a baby and was plunged into shock.
She mourned: “I was going through a whole lot last year when it happened.
“But I did report to the police, and they asked me for money for the autopsy.
“I don’t have money, but I want justice for my late son.”
Choking on emotions, she further said: “What I want is for an autopsy to be carried out on my late son to ascertain the cause of his death, to know if he was killed by someone.
“If the autopsy proves that my son was killed, everyone in his father’s house, including his father, should be arrested!
“They should come and tell the world what happened to a four-year-old boy who went to stay with them on his vacation.”
She narrates her story: “A week to Christmas last year 2023, my son’s father, Mr. Silas Sampson Enefiok, came and picked him up during the holiday period in December.
“On the 25th, I called him to bring the child for me so that I could take him to my family house to celebrate Christmas.
“Silas is a Jehovah’s Witness; they don’t celebrate Christmas.
“He brought my son for me, I took him to my family house, and changed the old clothes he was wearing to the Christmas cloth I bought for him, which is the same cloth he’s wearing in this picture of his lifeless body.
“After the day’s outing, his father came and took him back to continue his holiday stay at his house.
“On the 28th morning, he called me that my child was missing.
“I screamed and quickly ran to my family’s house with the baby I just had.
“I and my mum took Okada down to his place to ask him about what he told me on the phone.
“First my mum called his wife to give her directions to their house because she didn’t want me to go because of my baby.
“The wife immediately cut the call on my mum and refused to pick up again.
“I had to follow my mum to the place.
“On getting to their street, I saw a crowd of people with some policemen.
“I was scared, wondering what happened, asking myself if they had found my son.
“I had to push through the crowd to see what was going on.
“On getting there, my eyes met my son’s lifeless body on the ground.
“His father promised me that he would take care of him while he’s staying with him.
“I saw my son’s lifeless on the soakaway.
“They killed him and threw him inside.
“He was just four years old and nine months old.
“The state CID, Port Harcourt, where we wrote a petition against him, and his wife didn’t make any arrest.
“The police only took statements and asked us to go and look for money to carry out an autopsy.
“The father said he didn’t have money.
“He is financially okay.
“The money for the autopsy is just a paltry sum to him.
“I don’t have money.
“That’s why I am seeking help, calling for help.
“I need money to pay for an autopsy.
“I need to know how my son died, who killed my son.”
The Co-founder of ACVPN, Ebenezer Omejalile, reacting to the case. said: “This is very sad.
“No child deserves to die like this, especially now that we are approaching the months of the UN 16 Days Activism against Gender-Based Violence.
“The record should be set straight.
“We expect the Rivers State Police Command, State Criminal Intelligence and Investigations Department and officers handling this matter to, as a matter of fact and urgency, redeem their image by doing the needful.
“This is unacceptable.
“How can such a grievous crime linger on, and nothing was done?
“Justice must be served for both late Samuel and his mother.
“My take on this.”
My story: How our four-year-old died — Dad
Enefiok has also shared his side of the incident, stressing that his former lover was just desperate to tarnish his reputation, for reasons he could not understand.
His words: “I don’t know why this woman has been going from one point to the other to tarnish my image.
“You know, I have been seeing all the news flying online, but the point is that I don’t know who and who to respond to.
“People just respond to whatever they see on social media without bothering to find out the truth.
“This child in question has always been with me from day one.
“Right from when the child was born, even before the child was born, there was a misunderstanding in the woman’s family, between the mother and the father, which led to the parents not collecting the bride price.
“The mom said that the father cannot collect her daughter’s bride price, that she would collect it.
“The father said over his dead body will he go to his wife’s village for a bride price.
“The woman said that the husband did not pay her bride price and that there was no way he would collect Oluebube’s bride price.
“This matter lingered until my people said that we could not continue to be waiting for them to make up their minds.
“The father and mother are saying different things, no agreement.
“I then told her to stay with the child.
“I took care of everything that had to do with the child and I had been doing it from the day that child was born.
“Even when the boy went to register to enrol in school, it was me.
“Every weekend, I always go and take him to my house, not just on holidays.
“I would go and pick him back to the house.
“Every Monday, I would send him back to school.
“Until she remarried.
“After she got married, she left the child with her mom, who has no job and had three or five grandchildren with her.
“They left everything for her mom.
“I placed my son on weekly upkeep.
“I can print a statement of my account to show you, you’ll see her family name, Nwachi.
“Then, before I used to buy things and provisions to send them.
“But I find that the boy will come and complain to me that the other children will join him to finish the items.
“In fact, within a week, everything would have finished.
“I stopped buying provisions and continued sending money.
“On December 8th or 7th, Oluebube’s mother called me, that is my son’s grandmother, she said that the school had vacated and that I should come and pick up my son.
“I went to pick him up, and he started staying with me.
“On that fateful day, the granny called me, I called Oluebube, explaining the situation, and she said it was okay, I should go with the boy.
“So, Samuel started staying with me, my son, and my wife.
“Because Samuel used to come and stay with me, everyone knows him, including my niece who is closer in age to him.
“My younger sister’s children always come for weekends.
“My mom used to stay in my compound too.
“On that day, I brought Samuel.
“We stayed together from then to the 26th.
“On the 26th of December, we went to preach, because I’m a Jehovah’s Witness.
“We all went, including Samuel.
“We came back.
“I think that should be on the 25th.
“We went to the preaching, I came back.
“The mother called me, saying that she wanted to take the boy, to flex with him, the new baby she just had for her husband, who is a policeman.
“When we came back, I told her we were back.
“She said I should bring the boy to her junction so that both of them would go.
“I brought the boy to the junction.
“I dressed the boy and brought him to the junction.
“Some minutes to seven, she called me, that I should come and carry my trouble, that they were back.
“I went to pick the boy back home.
“We returned and went to bed.
“In the morning, everybody, you know, got prepared, because my wife had a shop just two streets, not far from where we live.
“We all ate at her shop and then I left for work, which is in the same location.
“When I came back, it was between 5:30pm to 6pm, and that was when we started looking for this boy.
“My nieces were also looking for him because they were almost the same age.
“The other one is seven years old.
“Samuel would have been five years old by March.
“Everybody was looking for the boy.
“In this search, I couldn’t just do it alone.
“I ran to the police.
“That day was a festive period.
“All these villagers were having masquerade festivals.
“Children would just cover their heads, and start chasing other children based on the festive period thing.
“I ran down to the police to find out if he had missed his way.
“Maybe somebody had taken him to the police station.
“I got to the police, the police said there was no information.
“When I got to the police station, the police were like: Who was I looking for?
“I said, my son.
“They said, that one you used to carry in your car.
“I said, yes.
“My place is not far from the police station and whenever I was driving past the checkpoint, the police would jokingly ask: Who owns this boy?
“And Samuel would say: He is my daddy.
“He was very smart.
“I came back from the police station and we continued searching.
“Even with the village vigilante group members.
“Everybody was searching.
“The police were still putting their heads together.
“I had to send the picture of Samuel to the police.
“We continued with the search.
“Even my street people were helping with the search.
“Some people asked me to call his mother, maybe he was with her.
“I said, after all, we are not dragging the child, how could she come to pick him up without letting me know?
“I kept thinking that perhaps he missed his way, maybe he followed these masquerades.
“Maybe at the end of the day, he could not find his way back.
“We did that the next day.
“I went to the police station around 5am again.
“I was there till between 6pm and 7pm.
“Police said I should wait 24 hours before declaring him missing.
“They even asked me to go to police headquarters so that they could radio it for a missing child.
“I don’t have any option but to call the mother to be sure.
:I asked her if Samuel was with her, and she started threatening me, shouting and saying that I shouldn’t tell her that anything happened to her son.
“I told her that Samuel was missing, and we were looking for him.
“It was after two hours, on our way to the police headquarters, that some people started shouting that they had seen the boy.
“My neighbour was the one driving my car.
“People gathered in the next street, which was where they found him.
“It happened that there was a sewage pit in an uncompleted building just close to the expressway, close to the road.
“The street there, the soakaway was covered with plantain at the edge.
“They found the boy inside the sewage pit.
“There is water inside the sewage pit.
“That’s when the police came back, carried the corpse, and went to the police station from there.
“They took the corpse to the mortuary.
“Even the mother came.
“The mother got there even before the police arrived.
“At almost the same time, police arrived.
“Police were the ones that brought it out and went to the mortuary.
“We came back to the police station.
“Police even detained me.
“Detained everybody, you know, and continued their search.
“Later, they released me, and they continued their investigation.
“They asked how we were living with the child and his relationship with my wife.
“During the whole investigation by police, my wife, my son, and others were detained for about two days.
“Before the Police transferred the matter to State CID.
“We got to state CID.
“The Commissioner of Police was involved.
“After the whole investigation from State CID, they now assigned a new IPO at State CID to continue the investigation from there, in which she, being the mother of the boy, was also involved.
“The new IPO went for the investigation, came to the house, went to the mortuary to see if there was any part of the boy that had been cut.
“After the whole investigation, they granted my wife, my niece and I bail.
“The mother said that she was not satisfied with the investigation and that she had to continue on her own.
“The grandmother said, no, she would go to ‘juju’ in Ogoni and all that.
“I told the grandmother, okay, no problem.
“If there was any way she could go to find out what happened to this boy, I was 100 percent behind her.
“Because it was a painful thing that my son was dead.
“The grandmother, instead of the juju, even the day police called her to come to state CID, she said no, she went to their village, Ogoni, not the husband’s side, to find out what happened to her grandson.
“Police said, okay, no problem, that is good, do your findings, at least that will help the police.
“After that, she came back just like that.
“All they have been doing since that day was threatening me.
“Even their first and second sons had been calling and threatening me, saying they would kill me.
“The mother (Oluebube) also attacked me, called me a ritualist and all that.
“I asked her if I was a ritualist like you said, how come you lived in this house, you were never sick?
“I have been the one helping out even before you got married.
“Her mom was sick and abandoned, she was dying, I was there, I was the one that helped out.
“I did everything until I finally found out the woman had pneumonia.
“I asked her if a ritualist would be taking care of her problems for her.
“She started posting my pictures, my wife, son and family on social media, saying we killed her son.
“She was posting it, even people started calling me on the phone.
“I must confess that more than 400 people were calling me daily, calling me a ritualist, asking me what I did with my son.
“Even our pictures are still on Facebook.
“She was posting till human rights people took over the matter.
“Human rights, about three, four human rights activists, they called me.
“I said, okay, this is where I stay.
“Some of them came, you know, to investigate.
“After that, she still did not stop.
“I think that was in February or January.
“The other group came and went to the State CID, because she was told everyone on social media, on Facebook, that there was no investigation, that I bribed the police and all that, so a new human rights group came.
“We went to the Commissioner of Police, they made their report, from there they found out that there was a case file already because she told the world that there was no case file, there was no inquiry, that the police did nothing!
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“The Police brought the case file, and they invited me and my people.
“We went there.
“The human rights group said that they wanted a new IPO, and their demand was granted.
“The new IPO started a fresh investigation.
“They came, made their inquiry, and went to the mortuary to check the corpse.
“After everything, they reported back and told the woman (Oluebube) that what they saw from that investigation was like the child was running around, probably playing and fell into the soak away, whose slab had been removed, leaving a hole.
“That was the police report.
“Still, she said that she was not satisfied.
“Other human rights groups came, about three different groups, on the same matter.
“Last month, she chatted with me; the truth is that I had not been around since.
“I lost my dad in February and I had to prepare for his burial because I am the first child.
“The pressure was much on me.
“He was buried after three months.
“In that process, my grandmother heard about the death of Samuel and died.
“She was 107 years old.
“I started running again for her burial.
“So Oluebube chatted me up last month, that she wants me to go to the SCID, to get Samuel’s corpse, so that it could go for burial.
“I told her that there was no way I could go to State CID myself because this matter was beyond me.
“I told her that I needed her to be there too so that she could speak with them to release the body for burial.
“This has happened to be a police case.
“She said, okay, I should go to State CID.
“She said she would speak with the police.
“I said okay, I would have to arrange it.
“At least I need to have some more money on me so that I will be able to pay for transport and all that.
“I went to State CID.
“A day before that, she chatted with me again.
“I told her I was going to go to state CID on Monday because I couldn’t go to state CID on Saturday.
“She said I should not bother going again.
“She said that she had given me one week to bury the boy.
“I said this is a process.
“There is no way you could do this in one week.
“The police have to pass their report, too.
“I still went to the state CID.
“I saw the IPO.
“The IPO called her.
“She told the IPO that in fact, she was not interested in burying the boy now.”
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