The Anambra State Ministry of Women and Social Welfare has handed a social welfare worker with the Ministry, Mrs Chinyere Nwofor to the 13th Zonal Police Command Ukpo, over a case of child stealing and denying a widow’s rights to her husband’s properties.
Earlier on Tuesday, several voicenotes by a widow, Mrs Chidinma Catherine Ekene, from Amanuke in Awka North Council Area flooded the internet, alleging so many things against the Ministry.
The widow, in the voicenote, narrated how she got a call from the said Mrs Nwofor to come to a hotel instead of a Ministry for a matter she reported at the Ministry.
She said she had reported to the Ministry how her husband’s siblings had taken over the properties of her husband immediately after he died, as well as taken away one of her elder sons, and she has not been able to see him for the past four years.
According to her, several efforts to get the husband’s siblings to come to the Ministry for discussion had proved abortive until the said Nwofor called her and said they had finally come to the hotel.
She recalled how, upon getting to the Hotel located at Nibo, Mrs Nwofor had cajoled her into an agreement that didn’t favour her.
“One of my husband’s brothers, Pastor Ebenezer, who has been occupying my husband’s property said the only help he will give to me is that he will pay for my child’s school fees, on the condition that I will submit my last child to his sister who lives at Okpuno. It was this same sister-in-law of mine that they gave my first child and I haven’t been able to see him in the past four years.
“My brothers-in-law also told me that their brother who I married is dead and that I should go away.
“Mrs Nwofor threatened me that even if the matter goes to court, that the Commissioner and the government will fight for her, but no one will fight for me,” she narrated.
The widow said it was when she commented on a certain matter the Commissioner handled that the Ministry reached out to her to come and document her case all over again, regretting that after that, nothing was still done to get justice for her.
Confirming that all the widow said about the said Mrs Nwofor was true, the State Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare recalled how she had created the Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, SGBV unit when she assumed office, and appointed her the coordinating officer for the unit.
She noted that at one point, she observed that the suspect was going contrary to the mandate of the state government for the Ministry, which is to give voice to the voiceless, so she stopped her from working with the unit.
Obinabo recalled that on March last year, she queried her because she was still going behind their backs, doing all kinds of sharp practices in the name of the unit, just like the case of the woman in question.
According to her, she learned about the widow’s case when she commented on one of the cases the Ministry handled, wishing her case was handled like that and she asked that the Ministry reach out to her and she came.
“After speaking with her, I accosted the said Mrs Nwofor and also issued her a query, and a committee was set up to look into her matter.
“We were still at that when Zone 13 brought a letter declaring her wanted for child stealing.
“I want to confirm that what the widow said about Nwofor are all true and I want to say that I was never a partaker in whatever the Ministry staff did, as could be seen clearly.
“Chinyere did this whole thing without documenting it with the Ministry, as against the standard procedure in the Ministry where all cases are well-documented and assigned to panels. No single individual handles a case here. We do that in panels,” she said.
The Commissioner explained that she handed the suspect over to the police because they had written the Ministry declaring her wanted, noting that after that, the State Head of Service will conduct its investigation and do the due diligence, and if she is found wanting, she will face the music.
She also said she has contacted the widow to come to the Ministry so the case can be handled properly.
She called on the staff of the Ministry to desist from any sharp practice capable of tarnishing the image of the Ministry, warning that the present administration has zero tolerance for rascality.
However, when our correspondent spoke with Mrs Nwofor, she denied any wrongdoing, insisting that she did not fix the hotel meeting but only agreed when the widow’s in-laws pressured her to save them time and cost after traveling from Kwara to Anambra for the matter.
According to her, she was attending a conference at a hotel when the widow’s husband people called her that they were in Awka after failing to honour invitations for a long time, which made her quickly summon the widow to come to the hotel for the discussion.
This was last year March, when I went for a workshop at Trigpoint hotel, Nibo with the State FIDA president when the woman’s in-laws called me and said that they were in Awka from Kwara State and I told them that I could not handle anything.
“But when they pressed on further, I had to call the woman to come. The woman made a lot of accusations against her husband’s people but I saw that they were all lies. The husband people said they were ready to give the woman the two children and had even given her one million naira.
“The truth was that I had to entertain their complaints at the hotel because the woman’s inlaws complained that they were already in Awka from Kwara and could not go back without achieving anything.
“So that was how it happened and nothing more.
“I have not done anything wrong to deserve this. All these allegations against me are all lies,” she lamented.
