THE lifestyle of Evans Onwuamadike , the 36 year –old Nnewi, Anambra State –born kidnap kingpin arrested last weekend in Lagos, is different from that of most kidnappers who hailed from the state. This is because unlike his contemporaries who exhibit stupendous wealth in their communities and built mansions and business empires, which were demolished by government on discovery of the source of such wealth, Evans has nothing to show in his Akamili, Umudim, Nnewi village, or even anywhere in Anambra State.
Evans father, Mr. Stephen Onwuamadike in his sitting room at Nnewi
He is not even known in the area as he left the community as a teenager soon after dropping out of junior secondary school. In fact, his last visit to Nnewi was in 2006, one year after he got married. His wife and children have not even been to Nnewi for the first time and it is therefore not surprising that he is hardly known in the community.
HIS FATHER WAS ONCE WEALTHY
As this reporter was searching for the Onwuamadike family compound, expecting to see a mansion owned by Evans at Akamili –Umudim, none of the people asked even knew the name. Most people approached said they were taken aback when they heard that the kidnap kingpin arrested in Lagos hailed from their community. As Mr. Ikechukwu Nwafor from the community said, the Onwuamadike they knew was Stephen, who was once rich, but suddenly went bankrupt and has been residing in the village.
Mr. Stephen Onwuamadike, 58, Evans’ father and once a member of the famous Peoples Club of Nigeria, made money at young age and built a mansion that could be described as an architectural masterpiece in the early 1980s when the house was built. In fact, the house was built between 1982 and 1984. That house has become a shadow of itself because Mr. Onwuamadike can no longer maintain it. He also built a magnificent warehouse inside his massive compound, which served as distribution center for vehicle spare parts in Nnewi. In fact, many of the current Nnewi –born millionaires were said to have begun their business with goods supplied by Onwuamadike. That warehouse is now totally empty. Today, while his contemporaries are making waves in the business world, poverty has confined Onwuamadike permanently to the village where he is nurturing just few pigs as a source of his livelihood. His once flourishing business has collapsed and he can hardly afford three square meals.
Onwuamadike said his misfortune in life, after he was unarguably one of the richest people in Nnewi in the early eighties, was caused by his wife who, he added, used unconventional means to bring up Evans and eventually succeeded in ruining his life.
He said: “All the problems that had befallen me were caused by my first wife, the mother of Evans, who was also responsible for the wrong path Evans toed. What makes me cry always is that I was warned by one of her relations not to marry her, but I was blinded by physical appearance.
“Her relation actually told me that the woman would destroy my home and in fact told me some negative things about her, but I felt they were only being jealous of her. Because I did not want to live the life of a bachelor after serving my master, I married her just four months after I started my own business.
“This woman pushed me to the wall and succeeded in destroying my family. I stopped eating her food many years ago because I was afraid she might poison me.
I also ensured that my mother did not eat the food prepared by her. I suspected that she was manipulating Evans through diabolical means and unfortunately she succeeded. She would just disappear from the house and for months, nobody would know where she was, except that some people might say they saw her in Lagos.
“I had 30 cars, but today I don’t have any because I sold all of them when life became very difficult. All my cars were bought brand new and the only second hand car in the fleet was a Volkswagen Beatle which someone who borrowed money from me deposited as collateral.
“I furnished this house to a very high taste but due to hardship, I sold everything, including the air conditioners and other very important items in this house. As you can see, my roof is leaking and I can’t repair it. To eat is even a big problem.
“At that time, I was among the only eight persons that had land line in Nnewi. I was also one of the first Nigerians to buy Santana car when it came out in Germany. I saw it in a shop in Germany and paid for it and it was air freighted to Port-Harcourt a week later. If my business was still flourishing at the time Evans was in secondary school, there was no way he would have been in this mess because I had the resources to send him to any part of the world to study.
“When Evans was very young, it was my mother that took care of him when his mother abandoned our family house and was jumping from one place to the other. When my business ran into murky waters, Evans could no longer continue with his education at the Merchants of Light Secondary School, Oba and he dropped out at JSS 3. Since then, it was his mother that took charge of his wellbeing and the result was what he eventually landed himself into. I decided not to divorce her because of the vow I took with her during our wedding.
“When Evans dropped out of school, I arranged for him to go and serve someone from Nnewi who was living in Lagos, as I did, but his mother discouraged him. Rather, she started giving him money which I suspect, came from questionable sources and I decided to withdraw from their activities.”
According to Onwuamadike, Evans’ road to destruction began when his mother took him out of Nnewi and for many years, nobody knew where they were. It is now that I have realized that it was she who turned Evans into a bad human being.
Evans Car
He said further: “For several years, nobody knew where he was and when, in 2006 he surprisingly came back, I asked him the kind of business he was doing and he said he would tell me later. . He never did before he left home and that was the last time I sat together with him to discuss as father and son. Though I suspected that my son was not doing genuine business, I never imagined that he was a kidnapper because such a thing is not in our family.
Trip to T.B. Joshua
“In 2012 when I went to T.B. Joshua’s church where I am an active member, I visited my second son who also lives in Lagos. Without my knowledge, my second son invited Evans to his house without telling him that I was around. When he came, I repeated my earlier question which was that he should tell me the nature of his business and again he brushed it aside. I reminded him that I asked him that question in 2006, but he still did not give me any answer. I was not relating with my son Evans because of his mother. I never knew his movement; I never knew what he was doing.
“I don’t even know where he lives in Lagos and I was taken aback at the magnificent house shown on television as his house. Most people in Nnewi do not know him because he does not come home. He got married in 2005 but I have not seen his wife. The question is, why should the wife I married with my money put the family into this condition? Worried by what I was noticing in my family, I had to report the matter to elders in his mother’s relations; that is my in laws, for them to intervene as it is customarily done in Igbo land when such situations arise, but nothing came out it.”
GOVT SHOULD TAKE HIM TO T.B. JOSHUA OR OYEDIPO FOR DELIVERANCE
Onwumadike said he decided to speak out to know if government should take pity on his son, Evans because he did not know when he was doing it. He said further: “My son had no problem until his mother started manipulating him and I plead with government to take this boy to T.B Joshua or to Pastor Oyedipo for deliverance because I believe that God can still use him for the good of the society. His mother boasted to me that she has her children on her palms and that I have no powers to stop him, which shows that the boy does not know what he is doing. I believe that if the man of God handles him, he will turn a new leaf.”
EVANS UNCLE MURDERED IN LAGOS
Looking back at his life, Onwuamadike cried that his family had been destroyed by someone he brought into his life as a wife. Sobbing like a child, he said: “My only brother, now late, was murdered in cold blood in Lagos in 1990 at the age of 27 years.
I was overseas then but something told me that a bad thing had happened in my family. I thought that it was my father that died, but it turned out to be my only brother who was murdered in his bedroom in Lagos,
QUERIES THE MEANING OF ONWUAMADIKE
“Our father’s name is Onwuamadike (Death does not know a brave man) and I don’t know whether it is the name that is responsible for the negative things happening in this family. My only happiness is that they have not linked any killing to Evans, which is why I say that with the help of government, he can still be turned into a better human being.”
He said that one of the greatest tasks facing him was how to break the news of what had happened to Evans to his grandmother, who took care of him when he was a toddler.
Evans father and mother,evans car,evans two houses in ghana
Comments
Post a Comment