husband, 50-year-old Felix Oshai.
For a woman
who worked hard to build a thriving company, had good cars and did well for
herself, but now living at the mercy of well-wishers because her husband
(allegedly) arrived from the United States and hijacked her company, sold two
of her cars, took the remaining one for himself, gave her serious beating,
converted her properties into his and worst still, married their sales girl,
her emotional and psychological wellness can only be imagined.
When our
correspondent visited her where she now resides in Lagos during the week, her
story is one that could make anyone cry, more so that she alleges that the same
man has not stopped humiliating and threatening her as each day passes by. She
made strenuous efforts to hold back tears from rolling down her cheeks
throughout the conversation, thus every word came out with so much effort and
pain.
Flanked by
her only child, identified as Onyeka, 17, who suffers from autism, Calista’s
torturous journey to her present predicament began when her husband was allegedly
deported from the prison in the US and he moved in with her.
Soon after,
all she had worked for vanished before she could say, because according to her,
he took over the company, took all she had and went away with the company’s
sales girl.
Following
series of battery, his absence from home for about a year, his refusal to take
care of the autistic girl and his alleged infidelity, which made her to
contract venereal disease, a sexually transmitted disease, Calista filed for
divorce in 2010, which an Ikeja High Court granted in 2016.
Since he
left with “everything”, Calista and her autistic daughter had been living from
hand to mouth. With the support of Child Dignity Foundation and others, Onyeka
now enjoys scholarship at a special school for people with her condition, but
getting transport fare from Ipaja, where she lives with her mum, to school is
usually a herculean task and so she’s absent regularly. And this is after she
had been out of school and therapy for four years due to lack of funds.
A beautiful
woman with confidence and good accent, Calista, in an emotive voice, explained
that they met while both of them were in school but he travelled to the US
while she went for the National Youth Service Corps programme.
She added,
“I was 25 when we got married. I was under serious pressure to get married on
time, and then he seemed to me as a good man; gentle, meek, intelligent, caring
and I was intrigued by his ingenuity. If we had courted much, I would have seen
that violent part of him.”
She said it
was not until they got married and she joined him in the US that she found out
he was involved in nefarious activities. She also recalled that her experience
with him in the US ranged from frustrating to ridiculous, Punch reported.
Calista, a
graduate of Mass Communication, said, “In the US, we lived with his sister who
later threw us out. We moved to an uncompleted building where we lived with all
kinds of reptiles before we could raise money to rent an apartment. He
confessed to me he was involved in credit card fraud and that he was released
from jail to pay restitution. He couldn’t pay up and they rearrested him. I
needed to survive, so I got a job in a company. There, I had leg injury and I
had to use crutches for some time.
“I was
eight-months pregnant when he was rearrested and he was in jail when I had my
baby, Onyeka. It was when my daughter was two months old that he was released,
with the mandate that he must pay back that money. Onyeka became autistic when
she was two years old. I had to sell my jewellery and native wear to raise
money and survive.
“Given all
the troubles, he suggested we should come back to Nigeria to start afresh but
that I should go first so he could work some more and continue paying the
restitution.”
While she
came back to Nigeria to start life afresh, Calista alleged that she never knew
Felix went back to the same credit card fraud, which led to his arrest again
before he was later deported.
But while
Felix was allegedly languishing in cell in the US prior to his deportation,
Calista accepted fate, took the N2m she had saved before travelling and
established a company, called FELCAL International Ltd. in Mushin, Lagos.
She said
FELCAL was an acronym of their names; Felix and Calista. She said the company
which was into selling printing materials, got the sole distributorship for a
top product in West Africa, making people from other countries to come to
Nigeria to buy the product.
Providence smiled
on her and the company began to flourish. When Felix returned from his sojourn,
and failing to raise money to start anything, he joined his wife in the
business, and they lived as a family.
But,
according to her, running the company together was the beginning of the end to
her happiness and that of her daughter.
She
recalled, “At a point, he told me to stop coming to the office. I had to get a
job in a consulting firm. I decided to build a career there and I was getting
promotion as and when due. Then, he came again and said I should stop working
in the firm, but I refused. I felt I was dreaming, but he beat me black and
blue. I lost two of my teeth to that battery.”
Unknown to
Calista, more troubles lay ahead. She added, “It’s by miracle that I’m alive.
He was beating me, hitting my head against the wall and punching my breasts.
There were times he would lock me inside the store in the house from morning
till evening for me not to go to work. Knowing I’m asthmatic, he would seize my
inhaler and beat me like drum.
“He would
say the rate at which they were promoting me, I would soon become a boss and it
would get into my head, so, in his words, he needed to stop me.”
Eventually,
Calista left the job and resorted to travelling abroad to buy things to sell,
but that didn’t change anything.
She said,
“Despite the money he was making from the company he already hijacked from me,
he was still stealing my money. He forced me to close my personal account and
insisted that we run a joint account, which he cleaned up before he left.
He really
dealt with me. He refused to take care of Onyeka because of her condition and
he would even tell me I don’t have a real child. I wouldn’t know whether his
attitude was because of Onyeka’s condition. Whereas, autism runs in his family,
because one of his siblings was autistic while one has an autistic child. So,
he’s even the one who has the problem.
“Due to
beating and stress, I had two miscarriages respectively. Already, he was
cheating on me. He would come back late and tell me not to sleep until he came
back. He was very mean and would beat me at any opportunity. I noticed he
stopped moving close to me, but I didn’t know he had infected me with venereal
disease. He was already treating himself but he never told me.
“I must tell
you that the infection pains me more than the money he stole from me, because
I’m still suffering from it as I’m talking to you.”
Soon after
Calista discovered she was infected with the disease, Felix moved out of the
house, but not without leaving her empty.
She said,
“He knew he was leaving and was already making plans, so he cleaned the joint
account and forged my signature to sell two of my cars I bought in the
company’s name; Chrysler, a sport utility vehicle and a Mazda car. He also took
the Honda Civic saloon car I was using to sustain myself and move my daughter.
He’s still making attempts to take over my property in Ajah. He connived with
the lawyer to alter the document and told me to forget the property.”
“Since he
went with my last car, we now board public transport, and given my daughter’s
condition, she could be touching people and be acting funny in the bus, which
some people find embarrassing. I learnt he gave the car to his new wife who
used to be the company’s salesgirl.”
Interestingly,
when Calista took the matter to court in 2010, the presiding judge, Justice
(Mrs.) L.A.M. Folami, admitted several documents tendered by Calista.
Calista
alleged that Justice Folami, in her judgment in June 2016, granted her
ownership of the property, among other rulings. However, according to the
judgment’s Certified True Copy, sighted by our correspondent, Felix has
ownership while a quarter of the
property was given to the child (Onyeka).
This didn’t
go down well with Calista, who also alleged that the judge was silent about the
ownership of the company.
But on the
other hand, the obligations the court imposed on Felix had not been fulfilled
till date, which from all indications, had hampered the well-being of the
autistic child.
According to
the CTC, Felix (the respondent) was directed to “pay the school fees of the
child to university level and pay the medical bills of the child; the
respondent shall pay the sum of N50,000 monthly (subject to review) for the
upkeep and maintenance of the child; and a lump sum of N5m is awarded in favour
of the petitioner (Calista) to be paid forthwith, among other issues.”
But Calista
said Felix had not done anything since the judgment was given in June 2016.
At the
moment, Calista is facing another likely eviction as her rent would soon
expire, with no hope of being able to raise a quarter of it.
She said the
company makes money till date and that it operates three accounts, out of which
only one of the banks made the statement of account available in court, “and
which was in millions.”
In spite of
the judgment, Calista and her daughter have continued to live from hand to
mouth, and at the mercy of well-wishers; the girl had been out of therapy,
which is why she throws tantrums and eats her own hand, among other challenges.
While on the other hand, Felix allegedly lives in affluence with the millions
of naira in the company’s account, domiciled in naira, US Dollars, British
Pounds and Euros, according to the bank statements sighted by our correspondent.
Beyond
these, he has also, allegedly, married the company’s sales girl, Blessing
Oshai, with whom he now has children and they live as a family.
But a child
protection, development and advocacy organisation, Child Dignity Foundation,
which intervened in the matter, followed the case and ensures that Calista does
not sleep outside or go to bed hungry, has called on the state government to
intervene in the matter and compel the girl’s father to obey the court judgment
and “act responsibly.”
The Executive
Director, CDF, Mrs. Amaka Awogu, thanked the sponsor of her scholarship and the
school that admitted her, noting, however, that lack of funding as it is at the
moment could pose grievous harm to the child, especially in terms of her
therapy, supplements and diet.
She said,
“For autism and any condition that needs intervention, early intervention is
always key, coupled with enabled environment. This child has not got any of
these. She was out of school for two years. For people with autism, there are
dos and don’ts in their feeding, but how can this woman afford that. We have
also spent so much and we no longer have the capital to sustain the prescribed
feeding. Whereas, since last year, the court ordered the father to pay those
bills, more so that he could afford it, but he flouts the court order in style
and nothing happens.
“We need the
government to intervene. The mother is also psychologically affected and her
life is at a standstill. She can’t do anything for herself. They are struggling
and it is worrisome for us. Emotionally, that child is not doing too well, and
it’s not her fault that she was born like that. She was once used to a good
lifestyle until the father came into the show. Government needs to do
something.
“We went to
Corporate Affairs Commission and saw that truly, that woman registered the
company in her name while he was still in the US. She later gave the man 40 per
cent of the company, she took 30 per cent and gave her daughter 30 per cent.
“For us, the
child shouldn’t suffer as she is at the moment. All we want is a better life
for the girl. The father should be responsible.”
Awogu said
even though the foundation gives the woman some money monthly, it couldn’t be
enough to meet their needs. She added, “Even if it covers their feeding, what
about their transportation? We even planned to get her a job, but that child is
her major occupation at the moment.
“We know how
he (Felix) threatens the woman, and we have their audio conversation. Lagos
State government needs to step in and that case didn’t need to be in court for
seven years, given that a child with special needs was involved.”
Meanwhile,
the man at the centre of the issue, Felix, in an interview with our
correspondent on the phone on Thursday, claimed that the case was still in
court. When reminded that judgment was delivered in June 2016, he said he had
appealed the case.
“I can’t say
much because the matter is in Appeal Court,” he said. But our correspondent was
reliably informed that he only filed preliminary objection at the commencement
of the original petition that his new wife, Blessing, should not be joined in
the case in 2010, and it was after that objection that the matter was heard for
six years and the judgment given in 2016.
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