Slain Abuja vendor’s wife dissociates self from N500m lawsuit

Mrs Josephine Okereke, the wife of Abuja newspaper vendor killed by a security detail, has dissociated herself from a N500 million compensation lawsuit.

Okereke told newsmen, on Thursday in Abuja, that she was not privy to the N500 million compensation requested by the family.

She said what was paramount now is how to get justice for her late husband.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that on Nov. 23, a letter signed by Mr Mike Ozekhome (SAN), counsel to the Okereke family, had demanded N500 million compensation from the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the driver’s employer.

The letter also stated that failure to comply with the N500 million demand within seven days would lead to legal action against Speaker Gbajabiamila.

She, however, said the Speaker had since reached out to the family with a promise to take care of the children.

“Gbajabiamila carried my newborn child when he came to our house and said he was not a speaker when he knew my husband,” Okereke said, adding that what she needed at the moment is justice and not N500 million. She said she would not support the N500 million suit.

“It was shortly after my father-inlaw came from Abia, that I heard that my husband’s people were demanding N500 million as compensation.

“I was shocked and asked how they could do such a thing. All I want now is for the person who killed my husband to face justice. He was the breadwinner of the family and he just secured a job with the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.

“But COVID-19 prevented him from resuming and he went back to the vendor job to eke a living,” she said.

The 36-year-old mother of two said she was also a vendor when they both met in 2013 and the union had since produced two children.

Ifeanyi Okereke, the vendor, was shot in the head on Nov. 19 by a security detail attached to Gbajabiamila, when the speaker’s convoy passed through the Federal Secretariat.

Mr Wilfred Okoye, Legal Adviser to the Abuja Newspaper Vendors Association, had condemned the shooting of Okereke by the security aide, Abdullahi Hassan.

In an emotion-laden voice, he said the association was pained by the murder of the late vendor.

He called for justice for the bereaved family, saying that would serve as a deterrent to other security details.

Okoye commended the speaker for the role played so far in assuaging the feelings of the family, expressing confidence that the Department of State Security that deployed Hassan to the speaker would do the needful. (NAN)