Accuses daughter in-law of complicity
For Rose Omefe Opkodu, a 78-year-old widow who hails from Ubulu-uku town in Delta state, life has become a nightmare. The shocking news of the death of her son, Michael Opkodu recently sent cold shivers up her spine and for several days it was as if the world was descending on her.

Crime guard gathered that the deceased, 41, was married to Vivian Opkodu for three years and they had a son before his sudden and mysterious death.

According to the widow who spoke to Crime Guard, recently: “One of my sons, Gideon who lives in Lagos came down to our village, Ubulu-uku, and informed me that his senior brother, Michael was dead. Gideon further explained that representatives of the company, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company (NLNG), where Michael worked for ten good years, called his wife to say that he died of heart attack in the vessel while they were traveling off the coast of Spain.

Rose Omefe Opkodu,

“Since representatives of the company notified my son’s wife of his death, we have not heard from them as they seem to have found pleasure in relating with the wife, without carrying the whole family along.

As it is, all information relating to my son’s death had been handed over to his wife.”

Lamenting, Rose Okpodu said the worst part of the nightmare is the controversy surrounding his untimely death. “It was from his wife that we heard that he died of heart attack. We have not seen any document to verify any of this information. If nobody should know, at least, I should know and be satisfied of what killed my son or the circumstances that surrounded his death.

At a point, we had to employ the services of a lawyer who wrote a petition to the officials of the company because of the way they related to us which we found to be suspicious. Since our lawyer wrote to them stating some of these issues, till date, they refused to reply the lawyer’s letters and refused to see our lawyer when she visited their headquarters in Port-Harcourt.

“There was also a time the deceased’s brother, Gideon, visited Havanah Hospital, Port-Harcourt, where they deposited Michael‘s corpse in their mortuary to see the corpse and request for the death certificate. The doctor at the hospital made a call to someone in NLNG headquarters, Port Harcourt, who instructed that they should not allow him access to the corpse or be given any document unless he cleared from them or the deceased’s wife, Vivian, permitted such.

Unfortunately, the wife has disappeared from my son’s house in Ikorodu, Lagos, and nobody has been able to reach her on phone. They were married for three years and had a male child before the death of my son. Sincerely, we do not know where she is or if she has even buried my son somewhere. I do not know the culture that permits a wife to bury the dead husband in exclusion of the husband’s family. From where I come from, it is an abomination. My people will say that one person does not dig grave and pack away the sand.”

Appealing to the authorities concerned, Madam Okpodu stated; “I am appealing to those concerned to release the corpse of my son to me and also all documents relating to his death. And, if they push me too hard, I bet them that I will spend my last breath to insist that a second autopsy be done to find out what they are hiding and I am saying this because, my son was hale and hearty a few days before he traveled. And, suddenly under one week, they said he was dead. I do not deserve to be treated this way by the company or my son’s wife because I lost my backbone, Michael. It is not a thing of joy that at my age, I am battling to bury my son whilst the reverse should be the case,” she lamented.