•The five children in contention
Two men, Anyaso Udeh from Abia State, southeast
Nigeria, and another man identified simple as
Gabriel from Delta State, southsouth Nigeria, are
locked in a fierce battle over a grandmother, Mrs
Patricia Osadebe, and her five children over who
among them is the rightful husband and father of the five children delivered by the woman in Lagos
State, western Nigeria. Both men claimed to have married Patricia and
had children from her. Gabriel said he married
Patricia and paid her bride price and so, she is his
legitimate wife and the children belong to him. Udeh on his part claimed that despite the fact that
he did not pay Patricia’s bride price, he is the
biological father of those children.
Members of Patricia’s family are saying that since
Gabriel properly married her according to their
culture and tradition in Delta State, the children belong to Gabriel. The fighting has become so intense that the
police at Area ‘M’ Command, Idimu have
intervened in the matter to no avail.
According to Patricia, she married Gabriel more
than 20 years ago and they had a daughter who is
now married and has kids. She later left Gabriel in Delta State and came to
Lagos and lived with Udeh from Abiriba in Abia
State as husband and wife and had five children. Last year she decided to go back to her former
husband, Gabriel, with her five children and
claimed that the children belong to him. Udeh, whom she had lived with since 1993 and
believed to be the father of those children, was
left with none of the children. Udeh is pleading that if Patricia has decided to go
back to Gabriel, her family should allow him take
custody of his children in the interest of peace and
justice. While narrating what happened, Udeh said he
met Patricia in Lagos in 1993 and they started
living together as husband and wife and he later
took her to Cotonou in the Repblic of Benin in
1994 where they lived and had all the five
children. He said they later came back to Lagos and settled
at 10, Olayitaro Street, Bayota Bus Stop, off
Governor Road in Ikotun, Lagos. He said they had been living peacefully until last
year when he came back from work and did not
see Patricia and the children. Udeh said he later learnt she had gone to her
brother who handed her and the children over to
Gabriel.
However, another trouble started when two of
his older children, their first daughter, 17, and a
boy, 13, found their way back to Udeh in Lagos. But Udeh and the two children were arrested by
the police and taken to Idimu Command.
The police forced him to release the children to
Patricia, and he said he consented because he had
no money to fight back. “While she withheld the other three children, she
and the family are still making attempt to take the
other two with me to her new husband,” Udeh
lamented. When asked about Gabriel, he said he did not
know anything about him until this matter came
up. He said Patricia only told him that one man
(Gabriel) impregnated her in the village and he
had a baby girl who had married since and had
children. He admitted that he did not pay her bride price all
the years they were living together and said he
only did marriage ‘introduction’ and was given a
list of what to do and he was not able to do it
because of lack of money. Udeh said he had taken some wine to Patricia’s
uncle called Godwin Osadebe who lives at Ago-
Okota as part of the introduction and promised to
do other things when he had money. He described what is happening now as shocking
and did not believe Patricia could dump him and
take his children to another man. When P.M.NEWS contacted Gabriel, he said he had
taken his wife and children back and declined to
make further comment. The head of Patricia’s family in Lagos, Chief
Agumba said the family does not recognize Udeh
because there was no proper marriage between
him and their daughter, Patricia. He said Gabriel is recognized as her husband and
if indeed Udeh wanted to marry Patricia, he would
have paid the bride price to the family.
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