Felix Oshai and Ms. Calista Offor
A
woman has told of a startling tale detailing the unbelievable things
her husband did to her before darting off to marry their salesgirl.
Perhaps, only few women, including men, would remain in one piece
after experiencing what Ms. Calista Offor, 45, has gone through in the
hands of her ex-husband, 50-year-old Felix Oshai.
For a woman who worked hard to build a thriving company, had good
cars and did well for herself, but now living at the mercy of
well-wishers because her husband (allegedly) arrived from the United
States and hijacked her company, sold two of her cars, took the
remaining one for himself, gave her serious beating, converted her
properties into his and worst still, married their sales girl, her
emotional and psychological wellness can only be imagined.
When our correspondent visited her where she now resides in Lagos
during the week, her story is one that could make anyone cry, more so
that she alleges that the same man has not stopped humiliating and
threatening her as each day passes by. She made strenuous efforts to
hold back tears from rolling down her cheeks throughout the
conversation, thus every word came out with so much effort and pain.
Flanked by her only child, identified as Onyeka, 17, who suffers
from autism, Calista’s torturous journey to her present predicament
began when her husband was allegedly deported from the prison in the US
and he moved in with her.
Soon after, all she had worked for vanished before she could say,
because according to her, he took over the company, took all she had and
went away with the company’s sales girl.
Following series of battery, his absence from home for about a
year, his refusal to take care of the autistic girl and his alleged
infidelity, which made her to contract venereal disease, a sexually
transmitted disease, Calista filed for divorce in 2010, which an Ikeja
High Court granted in 2016.
Since he left with “everything”, Calista and her autistic daughter
had been living from hand to mouth. With the support of Child Dignity
Foundation and others, Onyeka now enjoys scholarship at a special school
for people with her condition, but getting transport fare from Ipaja,
where she lives with her mum, to school is usually a herculean task and
so she’s absent regularly. And this is after she had been out of school
and therapy for four years due to lack of funds.
A beautiful woman with confidence and good accent, Calista, in an
emotive voice, explained that they met while both of them were in school
but he travelled to the US while she went for the National Youth
Service Corps programme.
She added, “I was 25 when we got married. I was under serious
pressure to get married on time, and then he seemed to me as a good man;
gentle, meek, intelligent, caring and I was intrigued by his ingenuity.
If we had courted much, I would have seen that violent part of him.”
She said it was not until they got married and she joined him in
the US that she found out he was involved in nefarious activities. She
also recalled that her experience with him in the US ranged from
frustrating to ridiculous.
Calista, a graduate of Mass Communication, said, “In the US, we
lived with his sister who later threw us out. We moved to an
uncompleted building where we lived with all kinds of reptiles before we
could raise money to rent an apartment. He confessed to me he was
involved in credit card fraud and that he was released from jail to pay
restitution. He couldn’t pay up and they rearrested him. I needed to
survive, so I got a job in a company. There, I had leg injury and I had
to use crutches for some time.
“I was eight-months pregnant when he was rearrested and he was
in jail when I had my baby, Onyeka. It was when my daughter was two
months old that he was released, with the mandate that he must pay back
that money. Onyeka became autistic when she was two years old. I had to
sell my jewellery and native wear to raise money and survive.
“Given all the troubles, he suggested we should come back to
Nigeria to start afresh but that I should go first so he could work some
more and continue paying the restitution.”
While she came back to Nigeria to start life afresh, Calista
alleged that she never knew Felix went back to the same credit card
fraud, which led to his arrest again before he was later deported.
But while Felix was allegedly languishing in cell in the US prior
to his deportation, Calista accepted fate, took the N2m she had saved
before travelling and established a company, called FELCAL International
Ltd. in Mushin, Lagos.
She said FELCAL was an acronym of their names; Felix and Calista.
She said the company which was into selling printing materials, got the
sole distributorship for a top product in West Africa, making people
from other countries to come to Nigeria to buy the product.
Providence smiled on her and the company began to flourish. When
Felix returned from his sojourn, and failing to raise money to start
anything, he joined his wife in the business, and they lived as a
family.
But, according to her, running the company together was the beginning of the end to her happiness and that of her daughter.
She recalled, “At a point, he told me to stop coming to the
office. I had to get a job in a consulting firm. I decided to build a
career there and I was getting promotion as and when due. Then, he came
again and said I should stop working in the firm, but I refused. I felt I
was dreaming, but he beat me black and blue. I lost two of my teeth to
that battery.”
Unknown to Calista, more troubles lay ahead. She added, “It’s by
miracle that I’m alive. He was beating me, hitting my head against the
wall and punching my breasts. There were times he would lock me inside
the store in the house from morning till evening for me not to go to
work. Knowing I’m asthmatic, he would seize my inhaler and beat me like
drum.
“He would say the rate at which they were promoting me, I would
soon become a boss and it would get into my head, so, in his words, he
needed to stop me.”
Eventually, Calista left the job and resorted to travelling abroad to buy things to sell, but that didn’t change anything.
She said, “Despite the money he was making from the company he
already hijacked from me, he was still stealing my money. He forced me
to close my personal account and insisted that we run a joint account,
which he cleaned up before he left.
He really dealt with me. He refused to take care of Onyeka because
of her condition and he would even tell me I don’t have a real child. I
wouldn’t know whether his attitude was because of Onyeka’s condition.
Whereas, autism runs in his family, because one of his siblings was
autistic while one has an autistic child. So, he’s even the one who has
the problem.
“Due to beating and stress, I had two miscarriages
respectively. Already, he was cheating on me. He would come back late
and tell me not to sleep until he came back. He was very mean and would
beat me at any opportunity. I noticed he stopped moving close to me, but
I didn’t know he had infected me with venereal disease. He was already
treating himself but he never told me.
“I must tell you that the infection pains me more than the
money he stole from me, because I’m still suffering from it as I’m
talking to you.”
Soon after Calista discovered she was infected with the disease,
Felix moved out of the house, but not without leaving her empty.
She said, “He knew he was leaving and was already making plans,
so he cleaned the joint account and forged my signature to sell two of
my cars I bought in the company’s name; Chrysler, a sport utility
vehicle and a Mazda car. He also took the Honda Civic saloon car I was
using to sustain myself and move my daughter. He’s still making attempts
to take over my property in Ajah. He connived with the lawyer to alter
the document and told me to forget the property.”
“Since he went with my last car, we now board public transport,
and given my daughter’s condition, she could be touching people and be
acting funny in the bus, which some people find embarrassing. I learnt
he gave the car to his new wife who used to be the company’s salesgirl.”
Interestingly, when Calista took the matter to court in 2010, the
presiding judge, Justice (Mrs.) L.A.M. Folami, admitted several
documents tendered by Calista.
Calista alleged that Justice Folami, in her judgment in June 2016,
granted her ownership of the property, among other rulings. However,
according to the judgment’s Certified True Copy, sighted by our
correspondent, Felix has ownership while a quarter of the property was
given to the child (Onyeka).
This didn’t go down well with Calista, who also alleged that the judge was silent about the ownership of the company.
But on the other hand, the obligations the court imposed on Felix
had not been fulfilled till date, which from all indications, had
hampered the well-being of the autistic child.
According to the CTC, Felix (the respondent) was directed to “pay
the school fees of the child to university level and pay the medical
bills of the child; the respondent shall pay the sum of N50,000 monthly
(subject to review) for the upkeep and maintenance of the child; and a
lump sum of N5m is awarded in favour of the petitioner (Calista) to be
paid forthwith, among other issues.”
But Calista said Felix had not done anything since the judgment was given in June 2016.
At the moment, Calista is facing another likely eviction as her
rent would soon expire, with no hope of being able to raise a quarter of
it.
She said the company makes money till date and that it operates
three accounts, out of which only one of the banks made the statement of
account available in court, “and which was in millions.”
In spite of the judgment, Calista and her daughter have continued
to live from hand to mouth, and at the mercy of well-wishers; the girl
had been out of therapy, which is why she throws tantrums and eats her
own hand, among other challenges. While on the other hand, Felix
allegedly lives in affluence with the millions of naira in the company’s
account, domiciled in naira, US Dollars, British Pounds and Euros,
according to the bank statements sighted by our correspondent.
Beyond these, he has also, allegedly, married the company’s sales
girl, Blessing Oshai, with whom he now has children and they live as a
family.
But a child protection, development and advocacy organisation,
Child Dignity Foundation, which intervened in the matter, followed the
case and ensures that Calista does not sleep outside or go to bed
hungry, has called on the state government to intervene in the matter
and compel the girl’s father to obey the court judgment and “act responsibly.”
The Executive Director, CDF, Mrs. Amaka Awogu, thanked the sponsor
of her scholarship and the school that admitted her, noting, however,
that lack of funding as it is at the moment could pose grievous harm to
the child, especially in terms of her therapy, supplements and diet.
She said, “For autism and any condition that needs
intervention, early intervention is always key, coupled with enabled
environment. This child has not got any of these. She was out of school
for two years. For people with autism, there are dos and don’ts in their
feeding, but how can this woman afford that. We have also spent so much
and we no longer have the capital to sustain the prescribed feeding.
Whereas, since last year, the court ordered the father to pay those
bills, more so that he could afford it, but he flouts the court order in
style and nothing happens.
“We need the government to intervene. The mother is also
psychologically affected and her life is at a standstill. She can’t do
anything for herself. They are struggling and it is worrisome for us.
Emotionally, that child is not doing too well, and it’s not her fault
that she was born like that. She was once used to a good lifestyle until
the father came into the show. Government needs to do something.
“We went to Corporate Affairs Commission and saw that truly,
that woman registered the company in her name while he was still in the
US. She later gave the man 40 per cent of the company, she took 30 per
cent and gave her daughter 30 per cent.
“For us, the child shouldn’t suffer as she is at the moment.
All we want is a better life for the girl. The father should be
responsible.”
Awogu said even though the foundation gives the woman some money monthly, it couldn’t be enough to meet their needs. She added, “Even
if it covers their feeding, what about their transportation? We even
planned to get her a job, but that child is her major occupation at the
moment.
“We know how he (Felix) threatens the woman, and we have their
audio conversation. Lagos State government needs to step in and that
case didn’t need to be in court for seven years, given that a child with
special needs was involved.”
Meanwhile, the man at the centre of the issue, Felix, in an
interview with our correspondent on the phone on Thursday, claimed that
the case was still in court. When reminded that judgment was delivered
in June 2016, he said he had appealed the case.
“I can’t say much because the matter is in Appeal Court,”
he said. But our correspondent was reliably informed that he only filed
preliminary objection at the commencement of the original petition that
his new wife, Blessing, should not be joined in the case in 2010, and it
was after that objection that the matter was heard for six years and
the judgment given in 2016.
***
Via Punch Metro
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