Anambra State Commissioner for Social Welfare, Children and Women Affairs, Lady Ndidi Mezue has visited a 98-year-old widow, Mrs Veronica Mgbokwa Nwafor, whose house was pulled down by her stepsons and their accomplices in Imeohia, Ururo, Umunze, in Orumba South Local Government Area of the state.
It was gathered that the bungalow which was being erected for the old woman by her stepson (son of her late husband’s third wife) was demolished by her other stepsons (sons of another wife).
The visit to Nwafor’s family on Friday, followed a directive by the state government to immediately intervene in the issue, to ascertain the reasons for such heinous action and seek timely solution.
Just over a week ago, social media was awash with photos of a broken down house which had gone as far as roofing stage.
Other footages showed the old woman wailing in grief while concerned relatives and friends were trying to console her.
The reported stories accompanying the footages threw social media users and concerned observers into serious exasperation, with appeals to relevant authorities to ensure that justice is rightly served.
According to the family’s history, the late Nwafor Okoro married a second wife who would take care of his little children, just after the death of his first wife, and then went on to marry the third one years later.
It is the son of the third wife, Mr Linus Nwafor, whose late mother had lived together with the second wife, in a thatched house given to them by their late husband, that decided to build a new house for his stepmother, who took care of him alongside other stepchildren when their mothers died.
The nonagenarian second wife, Mrs Veronica Mgbokwa Nwafor, is left with just her married daughter whom she has been living with for over thirteen years having also lost her only son.
However, weeks after the four-room bungalow began getting to approximately sixty percent completion, the irate sons of the first wife, numbering three, and other assailants, pulled down a large portion of the house, on the grounds, according to kinsmen, that the widow has no right of residence in the said vicinity given she has no son.
The accused, Emmanuel Nwafor, Izuchukwu Nwafor, Chidiebere Nwafor, and their mother, Helen Nwafor, are at large, though one of them is currently cooling off at Zone 13 of the Nigerian Police Headquarters, Ukpo, Dunukofia Local Government Area.
Giving details of the incident, Mr Linus Nwafor, the son of the third wife erecting the structure for the nonagenarian stepmother, said that his stepbrothers had threatened his life and to pull down the house if he ever attempted to embark on it.
But he appealed to them to seek customary approach to the matter, and that if at end it is proven that the woman has no right of residence in her husband’s house, he would leave the house for them.