The forgery of court document is a
criminal offence which carries a seven-year jail term. But the Nigerian
Army does not seem to consider the offence such a big deal. When told
how Paul Egbo, a Major in the army’s medical corps, allegedly forged
divorce papers to enable him leave his wife and take up with another
woman, a female army officer, an official letter from the Chief of Army
staff said the offence is of no concern to the army.
In May 2006, Mr Egbo, a native of Delta
State, while serving in Maiduguri, Borno State, decided he wanted out
of his 12-year marriage to Uche Egbo. He called Mrs. Egbo, a house wife
and mother of their three children living in their home at the Ojo
military cantonment in Lagos State, and told her that the marriage is
over because God had told him to marry another woman.
He then changed his salary account from
which Mrs. Egbo and the children take money for their monthly upkeep.
Mrs. Egbo remembers that for the next eighteen months, up till
September 23, 2007, her husband and father of their children only came
home once; and that was to pack his belongings.
“He came from Maiduguri to pack his
things. I told him that if he takes everything how does he want us to
cope, that why has he abandoned his family, that he should make
arrangement for his children’s upkeep,” Mrs Egbo said, “Instead he
accused me of being a criminal and got me arrested. I was taken to the
guardroom and would have remained there if not for an officer who
intervened. But he took everything and left us with nothing.”
Mrs. Egbo’s ordeal was not over. On May
20, 2008, Military Police personnel came to her home and handed her a
Lagos State High Court order dated December 31, 2007, which declared
her marriage to Mr. Egbo dissolved. On the orders of her husband, they
had come to evict her with immediate effect from the house.
“It was only because the cantonment
commandant, Lieutenant Colonel Apere, intervened that I was spared. He
instructed Paul to come and sort things out himself because the army
gave the house to him and not me,” said Mrs. Egbo, who hails from
Anambra State.
Being the only child of an elderly
pensioner mother, Mrs. Egbo was totally dependent on her husband. Now
abandoned, she became a wreck. Unable to bear the psychological trauma
any longer, she moved out of the barracks in September 2008 and began
squatting with some acquaintances.
To put food on the table, she started
doing menial jobs. She could not pay her children’s school fees, and
they had to miss one year of school. She and her three children
practically lived off handouts from sympathizers.
A case of forgery
It was in this condition that Kayode
Ogunjobi, a lawyer, met Mrs. Egbo. Filled with compassion, he took up
her case free of charge and ran a check on the decree nisi and the
decree absolute allegedly issued by the court dissolving the marriage.
The response from the Lagos State judiciary in a letter dated July 17,
2008 revealed that Mr. Egbo’s documents were fake.
“We have checked our records and we
report that the document did not emanate from the High Court of Lagos
State as Suit No. HD/241/2007 does not exist in our records,” wrote
Mariam Emeya, then a Chief Magistrate. “Furthermore it is very obvious
that the document is fake as Mr. A. Ola Dada, the ACR (Assistant Chief
Registrar) Litigation who purportedly signed the letter in 2007 retired
in 2005.”
Mrs. Emeya, who at the time was also
the deputy chief registrar of administration in the Lagos State High
Court, further observed that a decree nisi only becomes absolute after
three months but Mr. Egbo’s decree absolute terminated his marriage
after two months.
“In the final analysis, there is no
indication of the court or judge who purportedly dissolved the said
marriage. It is therefore clear that the document is fake,” concluded
Mrs. Emeya.
The army didn’t care
In December 2008, Mr. Ogunjobi, through
Rouq Company Solicitors and Advocates, petitioned the Office of
the Chief of Army Staff, then headed by Abdulrahaman Dambazau, a
lieutenant general; and Mike Okiro, the then Inspector-General of
Police. While the Police never responded, the Army through its Special
Investigation Bureau (SIB) in Apapa, Lagos State, between August and
September 2009, investigated Mr. Egbo’s forgery case and the abandoning
of his family responsibilities.
“We were invited by the SIB and we
went. The investigation was concluded and the report forwarded. They
said they were sending recommendations to Defence Headquarters, and
that it is an internal thing, so they will get back to us when they
need us. And that is the last we have heard from them, till now,” Mr.
Ogunjobi said.
By June 2010, the army had still not
responded and Mr. Egbo had not rendered any financial help to his
family in years. During this time, Mrs. Egbo said her husband had
married another woman, a female army captain she identified as Rachael
Gashua, serving in the army’s Military Police Corps in Maiduguri.
After her children were sent away from
school just before their promotion exams for non-payment of school
fees, Mrs. Egbo approached Project Alert, a non-governmental
organisation promoting women rights. They assisted her with N35,000;
and together with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
petitioned the present Chief of Army Staff, Onyeabo Ihejirika, over Mr.
Egbo’s forgery of judicial documents and abandonment of family.
But Mr. Ihejirika’s response to the
Commission was that the army would not entertain the matter. Through
his staff, one Lieutenant Colonel A. A. Ali, via a letter received by
the NHRC on November 22, 2010, the army chief further recommended that
if Mrs. Egbo felt so aggrieved, she could lay her complaints at the law
courts.
“The issues raised are purely domestic
in nature and should be settle between the spouses. On the other hand,
if she feels strongly about the alleged ill treatment by her husband,
she may take up a legal action against him. The Nigeria Army does not
have the capacity to impose a wife on a personnel,” read the letter
signed by Mr. Ali “for Chief of Army Staff”.
Mr. Egbo could not be reached on his
mobile telephone. When contacted, his lawyer, Jonah Daniel of KC
Okolodia Co, said the media does not have any merit in reporting
the case.
“I don’t think it is safe for your
paper to publish this story. Paul’s wife has reported to the Nigerian
army and it’s being investigated,” Mr. Daniel said. “Also the Human
Rights Commission is investigating. This matter is under investigation,
so I don’t know what you want me to say.”
But when asked if he procured the fake
divorce documents for Mr. Egbo, he replied: “I can’t answer that
question. I won’t be part of a campaign of calumny”.
The waiting game
The head of the Directorate of Army
Public Relations, Chris Olukolade, a brigadier-general, when contacted,
requested that he should be left out of the matter.
Kayode Ogunsanya, a lieutenant colonel
and the spokesperson for the Army’s 81 Division, which oversees Bonny
Cantonment, where Mr. Egbo is said to be currently serving, promised to
contact him and then get back to NEXT. Two weeks have gone by and he is
yet to respond. With tears in her eyes Mrs. Egbo said all she wants is
for the father of her children to live up to his parental duties. As
she wakes up early every day to prepare the food she sells on a
roadside, she worries about raising enough money to pay her children’s
school fees, as schools resume February.
“For five years I have been struggling on my own. I have made up my
mind to move on. I am not out for revenge but if Paul wants to divorce,
he should do it the right way. He should also have compassion on his
children and cater for them and not leave them to suffer this way,” Mrs
Egbo said.
