By Ozioruva Aliu

BENIN CITY – FORMER Chief Whip of the Senate, Sir Rowland Owie weekend said his late wife, Lady Helen Owie’s humility led him out of the several occult groups he belonged to and changed his life from being an away father to a homely father.

Owie stated this when he spoke to journalists at the Benin Airport shortly before the remains of his wife was flown to Benin from Abuja where she died two weeks ago.

She was received by brothers and sisters of the Knight of St John International, a knighthood group of the Catholic Church.

Owie said he is the only surviving child of his parents out of 11 of them and that his late wife changed his orientation of seeing his home as a hostile environment.

He said “She was a wife, a sister and a mother, she came into my life 51 years ago, she took me from the street to the house; before she came, Motel Benin Plaza was my home, a man that does not have a good home cannot go home because a bad word that comes from a woman’s mouth sends him outside but when she came unto my life, within ten years, she removed me from the street she respected me and built unity among my children, my family and my mother.

“My mother had 11 children who died, I came as number nine, my mother taught me love and she was a daughter-in-law to my mother who was compassionate, she came to the family to show that compassion.

“When I return from work and I look not happy, she will put her hand on my back and say, daddy, what is the matter, relax, everything will be fine

“By the time she came into my life, I belonged to several secret societies, she followed me to four but each time she was going with me, she would tell my dad, not that I am interested but because I love him, I will obey before I now left all.

“She is a devotee of the Blessed Virgin Mary, she has no time to quarrel, even when I quarrel, she will say daddy forget about it.

“Fourty years of our marriage, we never went to the hospital one day but these last eleven years have been terrible; in the morning, they will say the sugar is high in the afternoon, they will say the sugar is low but I know Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ will take care of her.”