Dear NASS President and Members,
I write in personal capacity and on behalf of Walk With Widows Coalition to enquire about the laws, policies or bills through which widows can protect themselves from barbaric acts and human rights violations that have left millions of widows depressed, disillusioned, disinherited and/or DEAD.
With Widows Coalition is a group made up of concerned parties, who are professionals and leaders from different walks of life. The group is established on the freedom of association embedded in the constitution of Nigeria.
In the wake of covid, many women continue to face abuse and many widows are DEAD in their thousands. Sadly, there is no department or agency to cater to abused widows or orphans.
In 2020, Nigerian widows are still subjected to barbaric acts like routine rape as sexual cleansing, forced to drink waste water from husband’s corpse, pinned down for head and/or private part to be shaved, forced to sleep naked beside corpse or walk naked to the village river, excluded from funeral arrangement, impersonated to illegally collect death certificate, forced out of their homes with the clothes on their backs, forced to choose between their children or properties, forced to sign off legal documents for properties, forced to dress in black and forced into home imprisonment while in-laws continue to dehumanise, defraud and dispossess her of belongings and inheritance. In some cases, the widow and/or her children are diabolically killed as a way to instil fear or take over without dispute.
As a widow, the health services (hospital and morgue), judiciary and police in Nigeria and USA connived with affluential lawyers who robbed me of my personal belongings including clothes, equipment, jewelleries valued at over $250,000, belongings and hijacked inheritance valued at over 55Million Naira and $25,000 Dollars in Nigeria and over 4.5M Dollars in the USA.
My story is particularly sad because Bola Omoteso, was in Nigeria on vacation on the invitation of the Vice President. He was in Nigeria to sign up for a role as Economic Adviser on Trades and Investment in the Presidency. He signed up for this role on January 6, 2016 and began preliminary work towards full resumption slated for February 15, 2016. Sadly, he was killed by medical negligence occasioned by his brother and the clinic on February 11, 2016. Despite dying in that role, no compensation was paid beyond his fees.
The abuse and fraud I experienced was orchestrated by lawyers who are members of Nigerian Bar Association. They succeeded in perpetrating abuse and fraud because they were able to impersonate me to o gain documents with which they opened a lawsuit illegally in the USA and fabricated lies to revoke the legally issued Letter of Administration. The Wells Fargo Bank and realtors in Nigeria and the USA also cashed in on the fraud there by sending me into homelessness and trauma.
All attempts to have the Bergen County Surrogates Court in New Jersey investigate the fraudulent documents proved abortive as the court connived on the basis that the documents carried the Lagos Judiciary seal. Now that an appeal has been permitted, I have no funds to embark on the litigation. All attempts to have them prosecuted in Nigeria have been frustrated by Nigerian Bar Association, Nigeria Police, Lagos Judiciary and other agencies of government.
The story and news on the issue, which is one story out of millions, focused on the plights of widows in Nigeria, is shared via links below:
PSA in Yoruba and English
TVC: Plight of Widows in Nigeria
Omolola’s story in Vanguard Newspaper
Wicked Widowhood Practice
Open Letter on FRAUD
Appeal to Prof. Oluyemi Osinbajo
Demand for Justice from Lagos Judiciary
Nigerian-USA Lawyers Swindle Widow of $4.5M
Exhibits:
My story is particularly sad because
Since Nigeria’s independence, no affirmative action has been taken to show that government is concerned and wish to stop these wickedness meted to widows.
Our advocacy began in 2015. We have written severally to members of NASS as well as NASS through different mediums to no avail.
We embarked on a focused campaign on May 5 2020 with hashtag is #EndWidowAbuse #7WidowWeeks to drum up global awareness towards the June 23 International Widows Day towards uprooting and legally abolishing widow Abuse in Nigeria.
The vision is #EndWidowAbuse. The mission is #JusticeforWidows. The goals/objectives are #JusticeforOmolola, #ReformProbateLaws and #CriminaliseWidowAbuse.
Widow abuse which began from pagan worship has now become endemic in Nigeria despite majority claiming to be Christians or Muslims.
The evil called widow abuse has been used for many years as a punitive tool to discriminate, dehumanise, defraud, disinherit and stigmatise widows leading to homelessness, poverty, trafficking, forced labour, modern day slavery, trauma, ailments, insanity, diabolism (juju/witchcraft) and death. Where death of widow occurs, orphans may end up on the streets as daredevil miscreants, terrorists, traffickers, prostitutes, armed robbers etc. since family seldom wish to take them in for fear that they would grow to place demand.
An available data puts widows in Nigeria at 3.5M. Despite laws and international conventions that protects widows including CEDAW, institutions, judges and lawyers have been known to connive with in-laws, friends, companies and other interested parties to defraud widows to the extent of holes in law.
Sadly there has been zero affirmative action by the state or federal government and all programmes and projects by international organisations like United Nations are aimed at helping few widows with daily subsistence.
Before the world steps in as the world did in the case of Chibok Girls, NASS need to show leadership and move URGENTLY to END WIDOW ABUSE IN NIGERIA.
Once widow abuse is stopped, Nigeria would know peace in many areas. For example, medical doctors, nurses, therapists, herbalists etc. would see fewer cases of disillusionment, psychosis, depression, suicide, dementia etc. and so focus on better treatment options. A saner society would save us from public bombing, terrorism, arson etc.
Married folks suffer the end result in form of rebellion, anger, depression etc. The story was reported to us of a man who has been managing a wife dealing with insanity for years. I won’t be surprised if she grew up with an abused widow or mother. The knowledge of God saved me from considering suicide as an option. The mind can only take so much no matter how regenerated.
A child whose mother went through abuse may become abusive where not healed. This is how we can link widow abuse to wife (or husband) battery, violence etc. Orphans whose mother died from abuse and who society abandons because inheritance has been fraudulently hijacked and no free court or agency to approach, may terrorise our comfort zone.
The problem of widow abuse is heightened in the face of covid. Many have died in depression and poverty and where covid compounds that, “no record” death becomes inevitable.
END WIDOW ABUSE is one campaign we ask you to brand URGENT and ESCALATE to mitigate mental health epidemic and other security crisis in Nigeria. Where done, Nigeria would set the pace for similar action in other countries including USA, India, Kenya, Ghana and South Africa.
It is our sincere hope that our campaign and your urgent ACTION would END WIDOW ABUSE and offer benefit to all concerned - widow/widower (regardless of offspring), parents and siblings of the deceased and orphans (where couple is deceased).
Most importantly, we urge NASS to take direct AFFIRMATION ACTION in favour of JUSTICE FOR WIDOWS who have suffered human rights abuse before and under the present government.
Thank you. God bless NIGERIA.
Dr. Omolola Omoteso FAMUYIWA
Living Spouse of Bola Omoteso
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