My husband was our god, now he’s gone –Widow of voter killed in Rivers

Joy with her five children
| credits: Stanle ogidi

Struggling to settle into the plastic chair in front of the three bedroom bungalow last Tuesday, you could feel the despair in her every movement. Blood-shot eyes, swollen lips and pale skin, Joy Donatus, 22, was soaked in the saddest moments of her life. Managing to utter a word 10 minutes later, the fragile chair could not contain her grief when she did.

“Where do I start from with five little children,” she asked, bursting into tears as a handful of women made spirited efforts to calm her. “They have killed my husband just for performing his right as a citizen and left five children for me to cater for without any source of income,” she continued emotionally.

“My husband was the god we had in the family. We had a lot of plans on how to make life better for the family. But now that he is no more, who do I run to with five children? Why didn’t they kill us all along with him?” the young mother asked dejectedly as pin-drop silence swept across the compound.

Joy’s husband, Ikechi, 30, was among a handful of individuals who lost their lives in the electoral violence that characterised last Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections in parts of Rivers State. A farmer and supporter of the All Progressives Congress in Ipo community in Ikwerre Local Government Area, Ikechi was shot at close range by perceived political enemies hours into accreditation of voters at a polling unit in the town. He died on the spot, leaving behind a young wife, five children, an aged mother and dependants. His death is a pill too bitter for the household to swallow.

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Ikechi. Photo: Family

“I had gone to vote in Ipo 3 where my parents live when I received the information of the shooting at about few minutes past 12:00pm,” Joy said. “I said to the person who told me that it was impossible for my husband to die like that and that they should rush him to the nearest hospital if he was truly shot so that he could be given medical attention. But the caller impressed it upon me that my husband died immediately he was shot. At that moment, it was as if darkness took over everywhere.

“But I warned my husband to be careful about his involvement in politics because not too many people like him in our community for always standing for the truth. He would never support the evil some persons were trying to do in the town and so for that reason, not many people liked him. But now, they have done their worst.

“Look at those blocks (pointing to a section of the compound), he just moulded them to start building a good house for us. This one we are living in was just hurriedly done so that we could have a place to put our heads. But now that he is gone, who will build a house for me and my children? He was planning to start the foundation of the house by the end of March but they never allowed him to see the month ending. They have brought sorrow and pains into our lives,” the young widow said, tears gushing down her face. For her and her five children, last Saturday’s presidential election and the pockets of violence that trailed it in Rivers State took away with it their joy and breadwinner. Their lives would never remain the same.

“Why should we lose somebody like him?” Blessing, 15, youngest sibling of the victim, asked, searching deep within her soul for answers. “He had been taking care of me since I was in JSS 1. If not for him, our family would never have grown to the level it is now. He was like a pillar who held us together. He was like our father and everything else.

“Our mother has been ill since he was killed. If you see her today, you would never believe she is the same woman that was looking so vibrant before Saturday. I don’t know what the future would be without him,” she said with a trembling heart. A Senior Secondary School 2 student of Randolph Comprehensive College, Port Harcourt, Blessing’s desire of becoming an accomplished lawyer in the near future now hangs in the balance. That dream might have been killed by the bullet that ended the life of Ikechi, her eldest sibling last Saturday.

Okechukwu, another dependant of the victim, fought back emotions as wailings and ‘songs’ of sorrow rent the air within the Donatus compound. He told our correspondent that life has lost its meaning to the entire family since the tragic incident of last weekend.

“I was in the house when news came to me around 12:00pm that my brother had been killed at a polling unit in our community. I quickly rushed down to the place to confirm with my own eyes. I almost ran mad when I saw his lifeless body.

“He didn’t deserve to die the way he did. Ikechi was a loving person who had been taking care of my education for several years. I just finished secondary school and was planning to study Marine Engineering at the university. But his death leaves us all confused. Life has no meaning to us anymore,” he told Saturday PUNCH.

Gift, the eldest of the victim’s children, is 10, while her brothers – Favour, Prince and Destiny are seven, five and 11 months old respectively. The other girl, Light, is three. Innocent and naïve, they now face an uncertain future following the tragic demise of their father and benefactor.