When
a big problem brings you down, smaller ones ride roughshod on you. This
age-long adage is playing out in the life of Mrs. Rebecca Jang, a young
widow who has not known piece with her in-laws since her soldier
husband was killed by an accidental discharge from the gun of his
colleague.
Rebecca, a Jarawa woman from Jos East
Local Government Area, Plateau State, had got married to young Lt.
Benjamin Jang, a Calabar man from from Ikom Ekpa in Cross Rivers State
after the two met in Jos sometime in 2014. The young lady was at that
time a student of Sociology at the University of Abuja, while Jang was
serving in the Nigerian Army as a Lieutenant.
The two love birds got married at St.
Micheal Catholic Church, Nasarawa Gwom, Jos on September 20, 2014, with
the hope of building a matrimonial home together. Unknown to the new
couple, tragedy was lurking in the corner.
As it is usual with marriages involving
military men, the couple had no opportunity of a honeymoon. As soon as
they completed the wedding ceremonies, Jang left Jos to resume duty at
his base. Since the wife was running her undergraduate programme at the
University of Abuja, the couple were not in a haste to raise children,
so they both agreed to bid their time.
Barely 10 months after their wedding,
however, tragedy struck and put their marriage asunder. On July 26,
2015, Jang was allegedly shot dead in error by his own colleague.
Narrating how she got the news of her
late husband’s death, Rebecca said: “I lost my husband on the 26th of
July, 2015. Somebody just called to tell me that my husband was dead,
and I told the person that was not possible. The caller then told me
that my husband was mistakenly shot by his own colleague. As I was
trying to find out if the story was true, I got another call from a
commander who told me in clear terms that my husband was dead.
“The next day, I gathered myself
together and ran to 144 Battalion where my husband was serving to
confirm the true situation of things myself only to discover my
husband’s dead body at St. Anthony Hospital’s mortuary.”
The death of her husband thus marked the
beginning of the agonies the young widow has had to pass through since
then. It began with her immediate relocation to her husband’s home town
at Ikom to mourn his death. She had thought that she would be taken as
the chief mourner and be given the needed care and consolation by her
in-laws, but, according to her, she got the shock of her life instead.
She said: “It was difficult to
comprehend the whole thing. I got married on 20th September, 2014 and
lost my husband 26th July 2015. The four months I stayed at my husband’s
family home was like a journey into hell. I never invited any of my
parents or relations to come with me when I was going to mourn him
because I thought I was in safe hands with my in-laws considering the
cordial relationship I had with them while my husband was alive. I never
knew that the same people whom I considered my family members had
suddenly changed.
“While investigation was going on in the
hospital, the burial had to be delayed, which explained why I had to
stay for four months before the burial. I went to the morgue to request
for the clothes my husband wore on the day he was shot, but the morgue
attendant gave me his jeans trousers and a shirt which I knew was not
his, because we were of the habit of exchanging pictures on a daily
basis.
“I then proceeded to my husband’s beat
to collect his property, which I took to his parents. He had a car and
some other items. The family told me that in their tradition, such
property should not have been touched until the man had been buried. I
never argued with them; I gave them the car key and other items.
“As we began to plan the burial, we
discovered that it was taking a long process for the army to release
money for burial, so we have to look into the personal account of my
late husband. My husband and I operated a joint account. Since I was
also a signatory to the account, I had the knowledge of how much we had
in it, and I thought that since we were one family, I should not hide
anything from them. I told them that we had N1.3 million.
“After telling them the account details,
they started plotting how to exhaust the account so that I would not
have anything left for my upkeep. So they told me they had given a
befitting burial to their son and that they had to build a tomb which
will cost them N600,000. I thought I should not oppose the plan since
the money was not my target. At a point, they said they needed all the
money in my husband’s account, and I gave it to them.
“My in-laws came to me again after
sometime to ask for the particulars of my husband’s car. I told them
that the particulars were in the barracks where we lived at Maxwell
Khobe Cantonment, Rukuba Baracks, Jos. That was when it dawned on me
that the people wanted to strip me of everything my husband had. But I
kept quiet and just watched them.
“When they eventually announced the date
for burial, I asked them to give me permission to come back to Jos and
tell my parents about the burial arrangement. That was when they started
saying I had a hand in the death of my husband; that I was trying to
run away. I was shocked.
“The same people I thought would love me
started raining abuses and placing curses on me; that I would pay for
the death of their son if I had a hand in his death. I then realised
that I was in a deep mess. They accused me of killing their son so that I
could take over his property.
“They called my late husband’s friends
and told them that I was a drug addict, saying that I killed their son
and so on. They said I only got married to their son for 10 months and I
wanted to inherit all his properties.
“I was preparing for my final exams in
the university, so I took permission from them to go and sit for my
final year exams. That too became a problem. They accused me of not
settling down to mourn my husband. In short, anything I did was a
problem.
“When I went back to Ikom with my
parents for the burial, I did not know that they were still plotting to
deal with me. In the room I stayed, my ATM card got lost. Unknown to me,
they sent one of my husband’s nephews to come and take my ATM card so
that they could check my personal account for money. It was the same
nephew I used to send to the bank to get me money for my upkeep while I
was mourning.
“I still endured the situation and
prayed to God to see me through the burial. At that point, I would have
found my way out of the place, because their attitude towards me was
becoming unbearable. But I could not leave because I needed to pay my
last respects to my late husband. So I endured and stayed.
“To make thing worse, they refused to
welcome my parents who came all the way for the burial in spite of the
fact that my parents had informed them on the phone that they were
coming for the burial. My in-laws resolved not to have anything to do
with me and my parents who came for the burial. They refused to give my
parents accommodation and I had to take them to a hotel.
“They were just looking for one excuse
or the other to scandalise me and cover up what they did to me. One of
them would come and take my husband’s picture and start talking to it,
saying: ‘You see, Ben, you went to marry a prostitute and she has killed
you and withdrawn all your money and hid it.’ She was saying it to my
hearing.
“I later discovered that my sin was that
my late husband named me as his next of kin. That was why I was passing
through all this.
“Things continued to degenerate to the
level that my life and those of my parents were at stake. I had to call
my husband’s commander to send his men to protect me. The whole thing
was getting beyond my control. I needed to save my life from the hands
of my in-laws.
“In fact, the commander who sent some
soldiers to protect me advised me to leave the village immediately after
the burial. That was the man who saved my life from the hands of my
in-laws.
“My pain here is that if I could walk
away from the money they had taken away from me without complaining, the
car, and other belongings of my husband which I personally brought from
his unit to them, I don’t see any reason why my in-laws should torment
me, spoil my name by telling people that after masterminding the killing
of my husband, I also refused to stay after his burial. It was because
of the torment they plunged me into that the commander asked me to leave
the village that day to avoid the unknown.
“The plot by my in-laws to strip me of
everything was taken to the level that even my personal laptop, which I
was using for my school project, was seized from me. They claimed it was
their son that bought it for me. While I was with them, I gave out the
laptop for repairs. Unknown to me, they went to the repairer and seized
the laptop. They formatted the laptop and destroyed all the information
in it, including my project. They now told me that my husband bought
that laptop for his 75-year-old mother. The lap top contains virtually
everything about my life.
“Holding the laptop means that they
don’t want me to go for clearance in school. I am pleading with them to
return my laptop because the harassment has gone beyond what a widow in
my condition can bear.
“I am also calling on the Nigeria Army
officers’ Wives Association to please step into this matter and save me
from the grip of my husband’s people. It is too much for me.”
When The Nation sought the reaction of
the in-laws to the widow’s allegations, they declined on the ground that
they were still mourning their son.
A member of the Edim Family, Mrs. Glory
Ushie, told our correspondent on phone that the family was not in the
position to respond to the allegations now. She said: “The family is
still mourning the mysterious death of their only bread winner; we are
not in the position to talk now. At the appropriate time, we will
respond accordingly.”
Source: THENATION