Nigeria: Abia widow pleads for help as disputed buyers dismantle family home
By Zuleihat Owuiye, Mamos Nigeria
A 63-year-old widow in Umuahia, Abia State, Mrs. Nkechinyere Ndukwe, is appealing for intervention after men claiming to have bought her home began demolishing the property she says was left to her and her children by her late husband.
“My property is not for sale,” the retired headmistress said. “If they take this from me, they have taken my life.”
The two-storey building and a bungalow at Plot 62, Mission Hill, Umuahia — once known as Novotel Hotel before it was converted to residential flats — have been stripped of doors, windows, wiring, and roofing, leaving the structures exposed.
Mrs. Ndukwe said the ordeal began in January when men appeared claiming they had purchased the property. She insists the house belongs to three owners: herself, her son, and her daughter.
“I never sold my property to anyone,” she said. “They claimed my son sold it. How can one person sell what belongs to all of us? My daughter and I never agreed to sell any property. We were never informed nor consulted.”
She said her son was arrested and detained in Abuja “with threats to detain him for life.” He reportedly offered to refund the money, but the claimants refused. “Instead, they want to add more money,” she said. “How can you buy something jointly owned by three persons from one person without the consent of the other partners? Can’t they see three names on the ‘C of O’? The property has caveat emptor. We are not selling it.”
After she refused to sign documents presented by the claimants, Mrs. Ndukwe said intimidation escalated. On January 29, 2026, she said armed men she suspects were hired thugs stormed the premises with cutting machines and weapons, tearing down metal gates and burglar-proof bars to gain access.
“From that moment… the attacks became systematic,” she said. “Doors vanished. Windows were uprooted. Electric wires, meters, and cables were stripped away, plunging the home into total darkness. The protective fence was demolished.”
She said the invaders come “anytime they like… sometimes at night. Sometimes in the day. I don’t sleep anymore. I live in fear.”
The Human Rights Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association, Umuahia Branch, has written a “Save-My-Soul” letter to the wife of the Abia State Governor, Mrs. Priscilla Otti, urging her to intervene. The NBA said Mrs. Ndukwe has been subjected to continuous harassment, dragged between police stations, while the alleged perpetrators act “unchecked.”
The letter stated the invaders have vowed to return with bulldozers to demolish what remains and eject her “dead or alive.”
The NBA described Mrs. Ndukwe as elderly, hypertensive, and without help, living in constant anxiety as her health deteriorates. Her grandchildren also live in the damaged home, facing insecurity and darkness.
“She is a poor widow who has given her life to serving society as a teacher,” the NBA committee noted. “Now she is being pushed to the edge, abandoned and defenseless.”
For now, the battered structures stand as evidence of the dispute, while Mrs. Ndukwe waits for intervention.
