For the
family of Mr and Mrs Odudu Monday, Tuesday, May 30, 2017 was like every other
day. As Christians, they woke up at 5am in their Mbukpa police barracks
apartment and had an early morning prayer.
According to
the wife, Mrs Etido Odudu Monday, the prayer was a special one as it was the
end of the month and they were expecting Odudu’s salary so they can pay the
children’s school fees.
She said
during the prayer session, the husband had reminded her that God has always
been the Almighty who must be worshipped at all times and not just someone to
be supplicated in times of trouble.
Shortly
after the prayer, while Etido went about her daily business, Odudu briskly went
out to discuss a few things with his colleagues within the barracks and came
back to get ready for work.
While Odudu
left for his duty post at the Area Command, without any premonition that that
was the beginning of his journey to eternity, Etido was left in the house with
their first daughter, Precious, who could not go to school because she had been
driven out for not paying fees.
About 9:00pm
that fateful day, the wife as usual was looking out to when her young husband
would come back home and have his dinner so she can go to bed.
But he
didn’t come back that night and when she asked his colleagues and neighbours,
they first told her he was on special duty and later he was shot and was
receiving treatment at a police clinic.
According to
Mrs Odudu, each time his colleagues looked at her, they would start crying and
be speaking in muffled tones, an indication that something was wrong. The
following morning, Wednesday, May 31, they broke the news of her husband’s
journey to eternity, and since then, the young woman with three kids has
remained devastated.
Journey
together
Narrating
her story in an emotion-laden tone to Saturday Sun, Mrs Odudu, 28, said: “We
met at The Apostolic Messiah Church, Calabar and got married in 2003. We have
three children – the first daughter, Precious, 7, and twins, Emmanuel and
Naomi. The twins are with the elder sister at a boarding school at Afagabong in
Akwa Ibom State.
“On the day,
May 30, we woke up as usual and had our morning prayer, asking God to help us
so that we can be alive to take care of our children. And after the prayer, we
went about our daily routine and he later went to work while I stayed at home
to take care of the house since I don’t have anything to do.
Around 9pm,
when he had not come back, I asked his colleagues about his whereabouts. They
didn’t want to tell me what happened.
“They only
told me to go inside the house with my daughter and sleep. Later, they told me
they shot my husband on the hand and he is at the hospital where they are
trying to remove the bullet.
“But
whenever they told me that, they would go back and start crying. It was the
following morning they told me he is dead and had been taken to the mortuary.
They further said they had misunderstanding with the Navy people who came into
the Area Command police station, Akim, and shot him while on duty as a station
guard.”
Looking
crestfallen, she said: “Since Tuesday, my first daughter, Precious, has been
asking me where is Daddy? Am I not taking her to school because she has been
sent out of school for not paying school fees? I told the teachers to wait till
the father receives May salary. For the twins, they have called for their fees
too. So I am just confused and helpless.
“My father
is late and my mother had relocated to Akwa Ibom. I am now squatting with my
elder sister now at Ebka-Ebuka Street at Anatigha in Calabar South. It looks as
if the whole world has collapsed on me.”
Lamenting,
she said: “My greatest problems now are how to take care of my children, where
we would stay and what I would do to earn a living. Before he died, he had
promised me that before the end of the year he would set up a business for me.
“So, for
now, I don’t have any hope because I lost my bread winner. I am helpless
because very soon police would tell us to quit our apartment in the barracks.
So, where do I go from here? I am using this opportunity to plead with police
authorities and good spirited individuals to come to my aid and help me do
business to help myself and these kids he left behind.”
Regrets
On her
regrets in life, the bereaved wife said: “I regret marrying a policeman, I
don’t like that work. I think it was a big mistake and I am paying dearly for
it. But I pray to God to send a helper.”
Also
lamenting the sudden death of Odudu, a close family friend, Victor Emmanuel,
said: “I and Odudu were together in Science Secondary along Mayne Avenue in
Calabar South where we passed out in 2002. Since then, he has been struggling
to eke out a living. For almost one year, he didn’t go to work because he was
operated upon for hernia and resumed work two weeks ago only to meet his
untimely death. We have really lost a friend.”
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