The Pandemic that MUST END by Dr. Omolola Omoteso

Widow ABUSE is RIFE globally. It is a pandemic that has eaten deep into the fabric of our society, yet one wonders why International Widows Day has kicked up themes like “Invisible Women, Invisible Problems”. NO! Widows are NOT invisible women. The abuse that has buried many widows is very VISIBLE. One wonders why society keeps ignoring this virus.

That you are reading shows a willingness to listen, it is what we at Bola Memorial Watch (BMW), the brain behind Walk With Widows Initiative (WWWI), have asked everyone to do. BMW is sponsored by Cares Global Network with donations from family and friends. Our brand name is BMW-Cares.

My personal story of widow abuse, impersonation and fraud appears incomprehensible, but many widows have more bizarre stories. This led us to push for #EndWidowAbuse towards #WelfareforWidows #JusticeforOmolola #JusticeforWidows in hope that we can #ReformProbateLaws and #CriminaliseWidowsAbuse.

Dr. Omolola Omoteso

We must urgently stop pathetic stories from the abuse of widows - stigma, fraud, disinheritance, discrimination, dehumanisation, by seeking reform of probate laws and enactment of policies and laws in Nigeria, USA and globally, which should include criminalising widow abuse as a crime against humanity.

My story appears complicated but it is actually not... The root is FRAUD. Fraud remains a crime not merely an abuse. I will summarise as concisely as possible knowing well that you can investigate. I am Dr. Omolola Omoteso based on marriage to Bola Omoteso. I am also known as Dr. Omolola Famuyiwa, brand name is @AnneMuyiwa, a combination of my middle name and family name (surname).

Opinions you form after reading this piece would point to your virtues and values as righteous with integrity or unrighteous without integrity. But understand as I often say that “before and beyond legality is humanity”. Before we try to claim what is legal, we must consider what is human. Social injustice has left the world in pain and panic as we wade through pandemics.

For many widows who have legal grounds, in-laws and other greed motivated persons use the holes in law to defeat legality and they go full force to rip humanity out of women who previously cared for them as family, parents, siblings, friends, tenants etc. 

Many have asked questions - Did you have children with your husband? Were you with him when he died? Are you legally married to him? Is it true that your marriage was not up to 10 years? Were the properties acquired before he married you? Are you his only wife? 

Just as covid19 called for an emergent global action, widow abuse has become a national and global emergency and embarrassment as millions of widows lose their livelihood which leads to mental breakdown or loss of lives, after losing their spouses.

I dare say many of such questions are irrelevant to the issue of FRAUD. The real question is, “Was fraud and discrimination committed by the state, lawyers and others against you as widow of Bola Omoteso?” And my answer is YES.

Some have also said, your story is just one side. That is no longer true. On May 1, 2019, Mr. Adeleke Omoteso responded via a WhatsApp message to members of a group I set up to honour my husband. I added him because I wanted him to be involved, I had nothing to hide hence I included my husband’s siblings, my siblings and others. He signed out but illegally copied the contacts and used this to spread lies. He did not send the message to me because he knew they were lies. That response is available online. On May 30, 2020, his friend - Iseoluwa Abiodun-Johnson, a lawyer, who helped him to perpetrate fraud responded on Twitter. Like Adeleke, he blocked me in the response to one of my associates. Rather than answer to the allegations of fraud, he asked many irrelevant questions to deflect the truth, one of which was, “Did she tell you how she sang and danced at her husband’s service of songs?”

This immediately points us to HATE. What has what I did or did not do at my husband’s funeral got to do with the fact that these Nigerian lawyers connived with others in Nigeria and the USA to do forgery, fraud, impersonation, dehumanisation, disinheritance etc.? 

By saying that I am Bola Omoteso’s widow, I have affirmed that my marriage to him was/is legal. My beloved, who was living with a rare blood condition, wanted to be sure he was MARRIED-MARRIED, we had 5 ceremonies! My story continues... 

Unknown to me, while I was still head bowed in deep grief from the loss of my beloved husband tragically killed on February 11, 2016, his brother (who is likely of half-blood) doctored the death certificate and autopsy result with false information, particularly address - he wrote his own, not my husband’s address. He is a lawyer, so he knows the holes in law.

Before this, he moved my husband’s corpse to an unknown location. This unknown to me gave him full access to documentation. He asked his wife to collect the death certificate because he may not have been given. The original death certificate (hospital copy) was never given to me. It is illegal for a sister-in-law to collect the death certificate and to sill keep it years after.

He handed over a copy of the certificate to a lawyer – Iseoluwa Abiodun Johnson of The Lawsmiths in Lagos Nigeria who lied that he is my lawyer (impersonation) and applied in Lagos State for Letters of Administration in both our names i.e. my name and Adeleke Omoteso’s names, without my knowledge or consent.

The documents obtained (bank certificate) contained my name as if I legally obtained it. This was sent to the USA – Surrogates Court, where it was later used to open a lawsuit and push the fraud that my husband changed domicile because he who had full access to documentation wrote his own address in Nigeria not my husband’s address in USA.

Today, my husband’s sibling has succeeded in robbing me of my right as the legal successor (my successorship right was revoked due to the fraud), impounded things we took to Nigeria, hijacked homes with all belongings in the USA, disinherited me and also denied me of my husband’s inheritance from his father which his father’s Living Will awarded to executors and their survivors. My husband was an executor, and I am his only survivor.

In the middle of the grief, I was approached by a woman – Tiwalola Fagboyegun (Shodeke) with a man she introduced as a Pastor in RCCG and her husband – Bayo Oni, to help with buying land so I do not become homeless. My friends and siblings raised money totalling over 60M, paid over the course of 2-3 years. As I write, no land, papers she issued turned out to be fake and she has left her last known home address in Magodo while her pastor boyfriend continues his work as a pastor. Attempts to verify additional papers have proved abortive and she no longer responds to calls. It is fraud and perhaps some outsmarted her too. Pandemic is dangerous because it passes on from one person to another!

Influencers approached me through a pastor and collected N200,000 or N250,000donated by my contacts to make the story go viral. Unfortunately, they started peddling lies through our Instagram handle and we had to close it down. We discovered that of the money, only about N5000 Naira was spent on “pay per click”. Refund of N100,000 or N150,000 was later done by the pastor who insist that fund was gulped by the 1 minute video reel done.

Suicide was definitely an option but as a woman of God, God in His infinite surrounded me with vision of justice and loving family and friends, who opted out of advocacy and chose only to pray. Did the Bible not say prayer without action is dead on arrival. If Rev. martin Luther King only prayed. If Ms. Jane Addams only prayed…

Following being locked out from one of our properties in the USA, the attorney working for my husband’s brother connived to send me to the hospital on false diagnosis! I was sent into confinement. Thankfully Holy Spirit whispered to me not to fight or force things to avoid being pinned down and injected as a mental case. When I insisted that my blood which was taken must be returned to me, Officers from Englewood Police Department in New Jersey brutalised me. I have audio evidence. 

Rather than sell the properties, which would still have given me money based on the fraudulent settlement I was compelled to enter into, the attorney who locked me out simply worked through another attorney to pay off what we owe on the property, and she and her beau took over the property for those who injected her into the case. She was promoted to partner status by Cole Schotz shortly after her “success”. She later asked to be taken off as substitute administrator. Rather than the Surrogates Court reinstating me as bonafide Administrator, an attorney who works with the judge who connived to do the fraud – Menelaos Toskos, in a New Jersey firm was injected! David Repetto continues the fraud such that recovered funds were distributed without a dime to me.

Vanguard Newspaper did a full page story (in print and online) but Adeleke Omoteso, a lawyer who is also my husband’s brother threatened them with lawsuit. His lawyer, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who did not do due diligence, went ahead to sue them. Adeleke Omoteso’s lawyers threatened and harassed my father to the point that his health condition was aggravated and he had to do surgeries. 

Channels Television, Television Continental (TVC), Lagos Television (LTV), Top Radio, Daily Report, did stories but none has recorded an impact because you the people have remained silent. The conspiracy of silence is why pandemic spreads like wildfire; it is why fraud against widows has gone from being a local epidemic to global pandemic.

My team and I have done quite a mass of research and I have done quite a mass of personal videos which are available on Youtube.com/AnneCares. We also have a full-length interview on YouTube recorded by actress Stella Damasus. Maiyegun Politico shared a video I recorded and posted last year Widows Day, June 23 but sadly despite being viewed by over 50,000 people, the conversation did not trigger any result. What do we still need? We the PEOPLE.

The more you are silent, the more fraudsters extend their depth and the likelihood you or your loved ones could be a target cannot be over emphasised.

Walk With Widows is an initiative for widows and non-widows who are interested in enlivening widows, enlightening people and empowering stakeholders to demand that the executive, legislature and judiciary protect widows from stigma, fraud, discrimination, dehumanisation and disinheritance. Our vision it to #ENDWIDOWABUSE. Feel free to join us on Facebook.

I am available to respond to relevant questions and provide all the facts to those who ask here or via Twitter @AnneMuyiwa. But do a search, you would be shocked at the information already in public domain. 

Why has no leader acted since the case indicts Lagos Judiciary, LASUTH, Bergen County Surrogates Court, New Jersey Courts, etc.? The pandemic of widow abuse is secretly endorsed by institutions and those in authority because it pushes the borders of sexism, classism and ethnicism and racism to steal wealth from widows and hand it over to the “powerful”. 

I was referred to Rev. Derrick Green of the Interfaith Action Movement in New Jersey. Despite promises he made before and after listening to my story again and again, he pushed it to the back burners. Attempt to reach out to Pastor EA Adeboye to hear me out failed as the middle ministers thwarted the attempt with one asking me, “What if your husband left nothing!” I leave them to God who is able to serve divine justice.

My core power is God; all powers belong to GOD. I am optimistic that the power He has injected and invested in the people of goodwill will speak to serve #JusticeforOmolola

 

I am hopeful that you will use the strength of credibility to uncover a deep plot in Nigeria and USA that has institutionalised the ABUSE OF WIDOWS via connivance by probate court staff, attorneys, doctors, realtors, banks, tenants, police with in-laws who seek to use legal holes to defraud widows.

Written in my own hands.

Dr. Omolola Omoteso

Transformational Strategist