Two women from Anambra State embarked on a daring mission to Benin in Edo State and succeeded in broad daylight in taking away an 8-year-old girl right inside a court premises. The incident which reads like a plot in a Nollywood thriller, has kept lawyers and security agents in limbo since February last year when the unthinkable happened.

 

Without brandishing any lethal weapon, the two women relied on wits to accomplish their mission. They tricked both the presiding judge and lawyers into surrendering the 8-year-old girl identified as Miss Victory Eshonhion Samuel Emelia. The young girl has been the subject of a bitter legal battle between two families – one in Edo State, the other in far-away Anambra State.

 

To the bewilderment of Barristers P.E.Ewah and Michael Ajangbadi, lawyers to the Anambra and Edo families respectively, the two women who conned the court and took away the child under false pretext are identified as Mrs. Elizabeth Okafor and Miss Emelia Okafor whose last given address was No. 6 Ezenwan Street, Awada, Onitsha, Anambra State.

 

Friends turn foes

Court papers obtained by this reporter show that Elizabeth Okafor and Emelia Okafor, mother and daughter, were members of the Mountain of Fire Ministry (MFM) in Asaba, Delta State, when Emelia was a teenage girl. In 2012 Emelia became pregnant at age 15; allegedly put in the family way by a Pastor in the church who was no stranger to her family. On 17th May 2013 she was delivered of a baby girl called Victory. The Pastor in question refused responsibility and distanced himself from the Okafors who at the time were resident in Asaba.

 

Unwilling to let the world know that her teenage daughter had become a baby mama to a Pastor, Elizabeth Okafor and her daughter Emelia took the baby to Benin and handed her over to an old friend by name Irene Akowe.

Akowe and Elizabeth were not only close friends; both were members of the Mountain of Fire Church in Asaba when Akowe was resident in Asaba while working as a staff of Edo Line, the Edo State Transport Company. The baby was exactly seven days old when she was handed over to Akowe.

 

There are conflicting narratives to what the original plans of the Okafors were when the 7-day-old baby was handed to Akowe. Michael Ajangbadi, Akowe’s lawyer, said in court papers that his client (Akowe) “was informed by Mrs. Eliabeth Okafor that her daughter (Emelia Okafor) was raped by an unknown man and had put to bed a baby girl and the said baby was brought with her to our client’s house in order to shield her daughter from public disgrace, criticism and shame. She further pleaded for the baby and her daughter to take refuge with our client. And in the spirit of true friendship and Christianity our client agreed.”

 

While Elizabeth returned to Asaba, Emelia stayed back to be breastfeeding her child. However, she did not stay for long. Akowe claimed that mother and grandmother tacitly abandoned the baby with her. A retiree, she was facing great challenges providing powdered milk, diapers, medicines, clothing and other care a new-born baby would need.

The biggest challenge, according to Akowe, was medical bills. She said the baby was very sickly, a situation that saw her going in and out of hospitals on weekly basis. One night, the child lapsed into critical condition. Having exhausted all her life savings, she had to put an urgent call to her brother, a businessman living in Port Harcourt.

 

Her brother’s intervention did not only save the life of little Victory, it marked a change of fate for the beleaguered baby. Akowe’s brother by name Samuel assumed the role of a father, providing nourishing care and watching her grow from a tot to a pre-school infant and on to a brilliant pupil in one of the prestigious schools in Benin-City. At age seven, Victory did not only own a personal computer, she could perform prodigious tasks with the device. For the young girl, father was Samuel while mother was Irene Akowe.

 

Moms at war 

The stability, peace and loving care surrounding the life of little Victory was one day shattered when her biological mother Emelia and grandmother Elizabeth turned up to claim her. Predictably, Akowe resisted her old friend, questioning her temerity to turn up at her door to pick up a child she and her daughter abandoned over seven years ago. Court papers said that for the seven years there was no “form of communication and interaction or visitation from Miss Emelia Okafor.”

 

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The Okafors were said to have retreated, only to return later with policemen behind them. Akowe was accused of stealing the child. In addition to the Police, the Okafors reported the matter to the anti-human trafficking agency NAPTIP and later to the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA). Akowe said she endured harassments and intimidations but resisted all efforts to make her relinquish the child. And that was how the matter wound up in court. She believed that it was the MFM Pastor who allegedly got Emelia pregnant in 2012 that now want the child back and was from behind the scene bankrolling Emelia and her mother to use Police, lawyers, NAPTIP and every government authority they can find to intimidate her.

 

Mr. P.E. Ewah, a septuagenarian and lawyer to Elizabeth and Emelia Okafor admitted to this reporter that Irene Akowe truly took good care of baby Victory; especially giving her good education. He however added that the relationship between the three women took a sinister turn when Akowe secretly relocated with the baby to another part of Benin-City, necessitating the Okafors to seek the help of the Police in tracking her.

The custody battle for little Victory, known as Suit No. B/76/08/17, was playing out at High Court No.8 before Justice M.N. Asemota when the Okafors sold a dummy to Irene Akowe’s lawyer. Perhaps sensing that the outcome of the court process might not be favourable to them, the Okafors pleaded for out-of-court settlement.

 

Terms of Settlement

On 31st March 2021, the terms of settlement were filed and same were made the judgement of Court. All pending court cases in the High Court and Court of Appeal were withdrawn. All complaints to any law enforcement agencies such as the Police, NAPTIP, etc by the Okafors against Akowe were also withdrawn.

Co-parenting was the spirit of the settlement. Both families should cooperate and contribute to the proper upbringing, education, learning and training of the girl Victory in her chosen field of human endeavor. There was no order on cost as both families were told to bear their respective costs.

 

The court ordered that Victory should live with Akowe during school season but on holidays should go to her biological mother. This arrangement was to subsist till after her primary school education in 2023 and could be extended thereafter, if necessary, by the court. The order also spelt out that no travel passport and visa must be procured for the little girl by Akowe without the consent of the biological mother; neither must she be taken outside the country.

 

It ended with a warning to both families: “Take notice that unless you obey the direction contained in the Order, you will be liable to contempt of court and will be imprisoned.

 

On the same day the settlement was made by the Court, the Okafors initiated arrangements to take Victory with them to spend the Easter holiday with them. They agreed to return the girl to Akowe on 7th April 2021 when the 3rd term school season would begin.

 

To have easy communication with the girl while she was away in Anambra, Akowe bought a Gionee android phone, valued at N68,000, and gave it to Victory.

All through the holidays, however, Akowe could not communicate with the little girl as the phone was permanently switched off. Frustrated, she ran to the Okafor’s counsel, P.E. Ewah, who then called his client on their mobile. They took his call. Akowe insisted she wanted to speak with Victory whom she could hear crying bitterly in the background. The grandmother, Elizabeth Okafor, who was at the other end of the line, ended the call brusquely.

 

Akowe’s worst fears became a reality when the expected date for the child to return to Benin came and passed with no trace of the child nor words from the Okafors. The distraught guardian accuses P.E. Ewah of refusing to disclose the contact details of Elizabeth and Emelia Okafor whose mission to Benin apparently was to abduct Victory.

 

It is almost one year after. Another Easter holiday is about to come; yet Victory’s whereabouts remain unknown.

When contacted, P.E. Ewah spoke to this reporter from his sick bed. He said he was down in debilitating health. He denied conspiracy in the abduction of little Victory. He said there was no way he could be happy by the actions of his clients, adding that in his show of concern over the unexpected development, he almost crossed the ethical line educating Irene Akowe on the next steps she could take.