The representatives of the families of J, B. Osuhor of Umxvnede, Delta State and late Wilfred Obiom of Agulu, Anambra State have called on the Inspector General of Police to use his good offices to put to effect the order of the Federal High Court, Abuja in suit Nos. FHC/ABJ/CS/1289/2021 and FHC/ABJ/CS/1290/2021 for the unconditional release of their son and son-in-law, Mr. Jude Osuhor, and their daughter and in-law, Ms. Happiness Efifie, who have been in Police custody at the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID), Area 10, Garki, Abuja on alleged trumped-up, spurious and diabolical accusation of murder of Mrs Vivian Osuhor (nee Efifie) (Jude’s wife and Happpiness’ elder sister).
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The families made this appeal on Tuesday, November 16, 2021 at NW Press Centre, Abuja.
According to statement signed by the Eldest Sister of Jude Osuhor Mrs. Uche Oniemola (nee Osuhor), Madam Bridget Osuhor, Aged Mother of Jude Osuhor, Eldest Brother of Happiness & Late Vivian, Mr. Tochukwu Efifie, Eldest Sister of Happiness & Late Vivian, Ms. Peace Efifie and Aunt of Peace, Tochkwu, Happiness, Loveth & Late Vivian, Madam Cecilia Okuroro (nee Efifie), the deceased died in Healing Field Specialist Clinics, Ajao Estate, Lagos on 14th September, 2021 from pregnancy related complications, fibroid menorrhagia, septicemia and diabetic ketoacidosis.
They narrated:
“Jude Osuhor and Ms. Happiness Efifie (who was living with Jude and his late wife) on the morning of 2nd October, 2021 in his house in Ajao Estate, Lagos by a team of policemen from FCID Abuja assisted by officers from Ajao Estate Police Station and accompanied by one Ms. Lovett Efifie, the youngest sibling of the deceased who the police described as the complainant/petitioner. Jude and Happiness were detained in Lagos and then transferred to FCID Abuja on October, 2021 by the police officers accompanied by the petitioner and detained until they were released on bail on October, 2021 when the Police found no reasonable cause to continue to hold them. Thereafter, they were re-arrested on 15th October, 2021 after being ordered back to Abuja from Lagos by Commissioner of Police (Homicide Section), Chollom Gyang, who also provided one-way Air Peace Airlines air-tickets for the trip from Lagos to Abuja, on the ground that the Deputy Inspector General of Police, FCID, Abuja, Joseph Egbunike, wanted to interview them. (Copies of the air-tickets are attached.)
“A day before the first arrest took place on the said 2nd October, 2021, a service of songs for the deceased was held in the evening of October, 2021 in the church Jude and his late wife and children attended in Lagos. The service of songs was the first part of the funeral arrangement which was planned to culminate in the burial of the deceased in Umunede, Delta State on 70′ October, 2021.
“The burial date of 7th October, 2021 was jointly agreed and scheduled by the two families when Jude’s kinsmen from Delta State paid a scheduled condolence visit to his late wife’s kinsmen in Anambra State on 260 September, 2021 to formally inform them of the death of their daughter as tradition demanded and to set a date for her burial. The Efifie family had previously been biformed of their daughter’s passing shortly after the occurrence, and the deceased’s sibüngs had visited Jude and his children in Lagos in connection with the death.
“List of requirements for the burialfurnished by Orakwelo and Umuokolo kindred of which the Efifie family is a part when they held a scheduled meeting in Agulu, Anambra State on 26th September, 2021 in connection with the burial is attached.)
“Ironically, the said petitioner (Lovett Efifie) attended the service of songs for her late sister with four other siblings on 1st October, 2021 and slept in Jude’s house that night before sneaking out early in the morning of 2nd October, 2021 and returning in the company of some policemen to arrest him. She wrote and submitted the petition without the consent or concurrence of her family.
“While Jude and Happiness were in police custody in Ajao Estate Police Station, Lagos from 2nd to 4th October, 2021, the arresting police officers carried on with the investigation of the allegations, including visiting the medical facility where the deceased was treated and died, interviewing the Medical Director of the facility, Dr. Oyetunde Oyeyinka, and making copies of the hospital’s record of treatment of the deceased as a patient, as well as inspecting the remains of the deceased in the mortuary of General Hospital, Isolo, Lagos, among other things. While at the mortuary, Jude was made to stand beside the exposed corpse of his wife by the investigating police officers while they took photographs of him standing beside the body. How insensitive, humiliating, dehumanising and emotionally damaging for a man who only recently lost the wife he loved and cared for and with whom he shared two young children aged six years and fifteen months respectively!
“It is germane to state that at the time of depositing the remains of the deceased in the mortuary of General Hospital, Isolo, Lagos in the morning of 15th September, 2021, the body was intact. There were no injuries, no incisions, no sign of trauma, and no other marks on her body. The Chief Medical Director of the facility can attest to that.
“Before Jude was released on bail in the evening of 5th October, 2021 (prior to the re-arrest), a meeting, with Jude and Happiness present, was held in the office of the Commissioner of Police (Homicide Section) [CP (Homicide)] presided over by the Commissioner himself with Deputy Commissioner of Police (Homicide Section) [DCP (Homicide)], the head of the investigation team and the two officers who arrested Jude and Happiness in Lagos and a few other police officers present on the Police side; the petitioner Lovett Efifie, her eldest brother Mr. Tochukwu Efifie, another brother Mr. Blessed Efifie and the husband of their cousin Mr. Jossy Ogbonna Okpala were among those present on the Efifie family’s side; and Mrs Uche Oniemola (nee Osuhor, Jude’s eldest sister), Ike Osuhor (Jude’s younger brother) and Ayodele Oniemola (Jude’s brother-in-law) were among those present on the Osuhor family’s side.
“It is our view that the Police investigating team, seeing no further reason to continue the investigation of the spurious and trumped-up allegation of murder against Jude and his sister-in-law (Happiness), considered it necessary to invite the parties to the meeting to find a way out of the distraction occasioned by the false allegations that their investigation had obviously exposed and to resolve the issues without too much bitterness or leaving painful and enduring scars in both families. However, the petitioner insisted that she suspected “foul play” in her sister’s death and demanded an autopsy. She accepted to bear the full financial responsibility for the autopsy. Jude did not object to an autopsy because he wanted to have his name undoubtedly cleared of the false allegation of murdering his wife. The Police then informed the parties that a formal request for autopsy would be submitted to the relevant Lagos State authorities to facilitate removal of the body from the General Hospital, Isolo mortuary to the centralised autopsy centre in Yaba, Lagos, adding that as soon as a pathologist was appointed and the autopsy scheduled, the parties would be informed and that they were at liberty to appoint their own respective pathologists to observe/witness the processes.
“The clear understanding of all the parties was that the autopsy would take place in Lagos where the deceased died. Our familVs representatives at the meeting requested expedited autopsy in order to put the matter to rest to enable our bereaved son and brother, the children, the siblings of the deceased and the rest of both families mourn the late Mrs. Vivian Osuhor fittingly and begin to find closure to the tragic loss.
“At the end of the interaction in the office of the Commissioner of Police (Homicide) on that 5th day of October, 2021, Jude and Happiness were released on bail.
“The next day, 6th October, 2021, the Police invited the accused persons to FCID office for an undisclosed purpose. On getting there, Jude and Happiness were informed that he needed to write an undertaking that they would not go near the mortuary of General Hospital, Isolo, Lagos where the body of his deceased wife was kept or tamper with it in any form until the conclusion of investigation of the matter of her death. When the Police was asked about the necessity for the request for an undertaking when they had the mortuary tag for the body which they had retrieved from Jude on the day he was arrested in Lagos, they said it was routine. When asked if the petitioner had written or was also going to write a similar undertaking as there was no guarantee that she would not attempt to tamper with the body, the Police said it was not necessary. There was an objection on the ground that the petitioner was being treated preferentially, but when the Police insisted, Jude and Happiness gave the undertaking in writing.
“During another meeting held in the office of CP (Homicide) on 13th October, 2021, the petitioner controversially requested that the body of the deceased be transferred from Lagos to Abuja for the autopsy to be conducted in Abuja instead of Lagos where the deceased died and contrary to the subsisting agreement between the parties. The police officers in the meeting did not agree with her and openly opposed the idea, adding that there was no reason to do that, and that the subsisting arrangement agreed by all parties should be sustained.
“It was therefore shocking to learn from Jude that when he was re-arrested on 15th October, 2021, he was requested by CP (Homicide) to write a letter purporting that he had authorised the Police to transfer the body of his late wife from Lagos to Abuja for autopsy. He declined because that was not the understanding all the parties had initially, except that it was the new position of the petitioner which was objected to during the meeting of 13th October, 2021. When Jude refused to write the authorisation letter as demanded, the Police told him that whether he signed or not, that the body of his deceased wife would be brought to Abuja for autopsy. The next day 16th September, 2021, Jude was informed that police officers had been dispatched to Lagos in company of the petitioner to retrieve the body.
“It is shocking that some key officers of FCID Abuja appear to be doing the bidding of the petitioner even when it is manifestly wrong. In the name of facilitating the autopsy, the FCID allowed the petitioner to travel with the Police to Lagos to remove the body of her late sister whom she had falsely accused her husband (Jude) and her own Other sister (Happiness) of killing.
“We are also aware that when the effort to make Jude sign the authorisation for the retrieval of his wife’s body failed, Tochukwu Efifie (the eldest of the Efifie siblings) was approached unsuccessfully by the Police to sign an authorization to retrieve his late sister’s body from Lagos for autopsy in Abuja.
“We are aware that the autopsy has been carried out and nothing suggesting murder was found,” they stated.
They drew the attention of the IGP to the fact that the petitioner had not been on cordial and speaking terms for about ten years with her other three sisters — Peace Efifie, the late Mrs Vivian Osuhor (nee Efifie) and Happiness Efifie. It was Jude that had been trying very hard to persuade the three to reconcile with the petitioner.
According to them, “if not for a sinister motive to severely punish her siblings and the two infant children of the deceased, why would the petitioner suddenly become the champion for a cause without foundation based on a made-up allegation of the late Vivian’s socalled murder?”
They said it is illogical. They expressed belief that Jude who is completely innocent of the allegation is an unfortunate victim of collateral damage as he is caught in the cross-fire of a long-standing family feud, and that Happiness who is also completely innocent is a victim of cold-blooded revenge in a family fight, which, unfortunately, the petitioner is using State apparatus to wage.
“It is pertinent to state very clearly here that the petitioner had not been on cordial and speaking terms for about ten years with her other three sisters — Peace Efifie, the late Mrs Vivian Osuhor (nee Efifie) and Happiness Efifie. It was Jude that had been trying very hard to persuade the three to reconcile with the petitioner. So, if not for a sinister motive to severely punish her siblings and the two infant children of the deceased, why would the petitioner suddenly become the champion for a cause without foundation based on a made-up allegation of the late Vivian’s socalled murder? It is illogical.
“We believe that Jude who is completely innocent of the allegation is an unfortunate victim of collateral damage as he is caught in the cross-fire of a long-standing family feud, and that Happiness who is also completely innocent is a victim of cold-blooded revenge in a family fight, which, unfortunately, the petitioner is using State apparatus to wage.
“We therefore, re-state our appeal to the IGP:
“That Mr. Jude Osuhor, our son and brother-in-law, and Ms. Happiness Efifie who are currently being held unjustifiably on a trumped-up, spurious and diabolical allegation of Mrs Vivian Osuhor (nee Efifie) (Jude’s wife and Happiness’ sister) who actually died in a hospital under the care of qualified doctors from pregnancy related complications, fibroid menorrhagia, septicemia and diabetic ketoacidosis (as shown in the attached death certificate and medical report) should be released unconditionally to bury and mourn his late wife and care for their two infant children aged six years and fourteen months respectively in exercise of his fundamental human rights;
“We appeal to you, Sir, to use your good offices to ensure that there is no miscarriage of justice in this matter, and that Jude Osuhor and Happiness Efifie are released unconditionally to bury and mourn our late daughter and daughter in-law and care for their two infant children aged six years and fifteen months respectively in exercise of their fundamental human rights as ordered by the
“Federal High Court, Abuja on 5th November, 2021, and having been exonerated by the autopsy conducted by a government-appointed pathologist,” the statement read.
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