ABUJA-A protracted battle between the family of late business mogul,Victor Ameachi Ekwerekwu and his widow,Mrs Ndidiamaka Ekwerekwu,over the paternity of a nine months old child,known as Master Chidera Samuel Ekwerekwu,has compelled the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu,to order that the child be subjected to a DNA test.
But the child’s ‘mother’ and widow of the deceased, Ndidiamaka, has approached a court,seeking a restraining order on the police boss against running the test on the child.
She argued that the act of subjecting the child to a DNA test “amounts to slavery, servitude and a degrading treatment which is a gross violation of his fundamental rights as enshrined in Section 34 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.”
Besides, the widow prayed the High Court of Anambra State, presided by Justice D.A Onyefulu,to declare any result arising from the paternity test a nullity just as she prayed that she be paid the sum of N6 billion in damages by both the police and her deceased husband’s family for subjecting them to the test against their wishes.
The body of the man who,died on October 29, 2019, is still lying in the mortuary following a ten-month battle over the paternity of the boy as well as the source of his death.
Mrs Ekwerekwu, according to a petition to the Inspector General of Police, dated January 3,2020 by the late husband’s brother,Charles Ekwerekwu Nwabufo,brought the baby to the husband’s family few hours after his death and claimed he fathered the child.
In the petition,the deceased family said they suspected foul play given that the couple never had any child in their 18 years old marriage.
Besides,the deceased family alleged that their late brother’s wife later proceeded to the probate registry where she registered the child,formerly known as Ezenwa Onochie Ekwerekwu, as next of kin to the deceased.
Acting on the petition from the deceased family seeking thorough investigation into both the child’s paternity and cause of the man’s death,the IGP,Mohammed Adamu had ordered the Intelligence Response Team,IRT Unit of the police,headed by Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCP Abba Kyari to act swiftly.
Following this,Mrs Ekwerekwu was arrested on June 25,2020 after which she led police detectives to her alleged accomplice,one Miss Hellen Nkechi Ogbunankwo,where she was picked up also with the child in her possession. They have since been in detention at the Force Headquarters, Abuja.
Both maternity and paternity tests have since been conducted on the child but as the results are being awaited,the accused,through her lawyer,Barrister C.C Obikwelu of Chidiobieze Chambers,in Onitsha,Anambra State,has instituted a suit at the High Court of Anambra State,sitting in Onitsha Division, against the police chief and her late husband’s family.
In an affidavit deposed to at the court,a copy of which was made available to the media,the applicant prayed the court not only to nullify the DNA’s expected results but also award the sum of N6 billion in her favour against the police and her husband’s family.
According to her statement in the affidavit,where she joined her late husband’s brother, Charles Nwabufo Ekwerekwu;Mrs Njideka Ndiwe;Mr Nonso Okechukwu;The Inspector General of Police;DCP Abba Kyari,CP of IRT,Abuja and the Commissioner of Police, Anambra State,as respondents,Mrs Ekwerekwu alleged that she and her ‘son’ were forcefully taken to what she called “undisclosed hospital in Lagos where a DNA test was conducted on them” against their will.
Among other reliefs sought by Mrs Ekwerekwu are:”A declaration that the forceful taken,arrest and detention of the applicant on the 26th day of June,2020 till date by a group of armed police officers led by the fifth respondent (DCP Abba Kyari) on the order of the fourth to sixth respondents (IGP,DCP Abba Kyari and Anambra State Commissioner of Police) violate the rights to her personal liberty provided for under Section 35 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and “an order nullifying the result obtained from a purported DNA test conducted on the applicants forcibly without her consent and rendering such results null and void and not to be accepted by any court of law same being obtained by illegal and fraudulent means.
