A woman bedridden for 27 yrs, Mrs Ishola had cried for help to be saved from her pastor husband, Mr David Ishola who she said was threatening to throw her out of the house after taking another wife.
Mrs Ishola who is paralyzed in bed for years said her husband had been coming around to threaten her on the plan to throw her out of the house before he sells it.
Narrating her ordeal to our correspondent, the former caterer said her challenge started when she gave birth to her last born.
According to her, she was recuperating until her husband forcefully slept with her again and conceived a pregnancy.
“The pregnancy in that situation made me went into a total paralysis.
I met Mr. David Ishola Samuel in 1979 when he came to Benin for a contract and we both came back to Lagos as man and wife.
Then I just finished secondary School and wanted to further my education which my father told him but he assured us that he will put me in School immediately we get back to Lagos. I was not put in school as he said because his people said that will not happen until I was pregnant. I got pregnant in 1980 and gave birth to a girl (Yemisi) and then was enrolled into a catering school to learn catering service. In the same year, things picked up for both of us. We bought a piece of land in Dopemu Area of Lagos State. Work started in earnest on the land and a storey building (2 flats up and the ground floor
used for his business) was erected and we moved in there in1982.
Between 1981 and 1985, I already had four (4) children and I had been in different businesses/ contracts of catering jobs.
In April 1986, we had our court wedding in Ikeja Marriage Registry. In July
1987 I had my fifth child and that was when everything fell apart. On the 8th day which was naming ceremony, my husband’s brother came and asked me of the baby’s names which I told him, then to my surprise, he brought out some currencies, rather than give it to me in my hands, he placed them on my forehead and told me that was money for the baby. I never got myself back since then. By the next morning, my head became very heavy, I was walking sluggishly that my mother (who was around then) was alarmed, because I couldn’t explain what was happening. My husband was advised that I should be taken to the hospital where I put to bet in Randle Avenue, Surulere but he declined, that he was late for his appointment and rather dropped me in a nearby hospital where they were busy pumping me with drips and medicine, rather than getting better, my health became worsened to the extent that though I was awake, I didn’t hear or feel anything at all. It was so bad that my late father had to come to Lagos and took me back to Benin. To the glory of God, I came back to life few days later but was now on wheel chair. I stayed in Benin from July 1987 to January 1988 when I had to come back to Lagos due to pressures from my husband and the fact that my children were still too young. But on my arrival, the family members waged war against me, saying I was the only one enjoying my husband. Shortly after this, my husband joined them and started maltreating me.
Despite the fact that I was on wheel chair then, I engaged in several businesses successfully, until my husband decided to destroy some of them. For instance, When we rented a house in Gowon Estate, Egbeda, I noticed that there was water scarcity so i took a loan and
bought a water tank and started selling water, but later, he made issues with it and the
business flopped. I also took into poultry business, selling both eggs and fowls. At a time he started giving both eggs and fowls out to his friends. Later when I confronted him, he decided to poison over 400 fowls and the business also collapsed. I also engaged in businesses like Kerosine sales, vegetable oil. At a time, despite my condition, I became the major distributor for Coy oil company. When Coy Oil wanted to fold up, i was offered to buy it at the cost of N6million but my husband refused saying that there was no money even though we had a landed property that we could have used as collateral for bank loan then, so i lost out.
I was also into cow meat business, I used to buy a whole cow, kill and shared it into 16 parts and people would buy them off me. It used to be N4000 but now N10000.
On the house that Mrs Ishola claimed her husband was planning to sell, she narrated that “
We bought the land in Gowon Estate between 1990 /1992, built it and moved in1994. I was doing very well in my business and was also supporting him as
best as i could to the extent that everything to do with the home front was left to me including the children’s schooling. I didn’t mind then, after all my business was successful and i felt i was supporting my husband but i was too naive to understand that he was just taking advantage of my innocence and blind trust to exploit me and dodge his responsibilities to us.
I also went into Ankara materials sales, going to the factory in Kaduna where i would print my own designs, bring them back to Lagos. But my husband would take one design each and make for himself without payment. It got so bad that he would take and sew for his friends and business colleagues without payment and whenever I asked him for money his usual response was “because you want to make profit, we will not eat and wear cloth?”
Later we bought another piece of land, but when i travelled to Benin, my husband had sold off the land before I returned without prior information, and the money was nowhere to
be found or accounted for.
He paid an initial deposit for another piece of land but later decided not to buy it, he said i can go and pay it off for myself. When i got to the seller’s office, i asked them to change the name on the receipt to mine, since i am the one that wanted to pay for it but they refused, saying that it’s
only my husband that can give them such directive. My husband promised to go and rectify it on several occasions but he never did, so for us not to lose out completely, i paid for the land.
In 1997 he forced himself into me and I got pregnant, that was 10 years after my last born. He did everything for me
to terminate the pregnancy but I refused and had a girl who is now a 200 level student of Economics in UNILAG. From infancy till now, he has not spent a dime on that child just because I refused to abort the pregnancy.
As I speak with you, my husband still retained our flat in the first building, he turned his office space there to a church.
Currently he has taken one of his church members that he impregnated as wife.
He left me and the six (6) children in the house in Gowon Estate for over a decade. I had to take a loan to build shops in front of the house and rent out, the proceed is what I use to pay the children’s schools fees and other sundry bills. Due to lack of funds, I couldn’t continue with my physiotherapy exercise, so now, I am practically either on my back or stomach, because I cant do anything from my waist down. I wear catheter, and adult pampers, I suffer from bed zones all the time but God has been faithful despite my condition.
I still do little businesses here and there, buy and tie garri, sugar and groundnut. I sell cold pure water, both in bags and pet bottles. I still kill cow yearly for those that want to buy and I have a catering outfit too that handles event for people. I am not a lazy person. My husband has come to evict people from the shops outside saying that I was collecting money and spending it alone.
Now, my husband is threatening to chase me out. He does not want anyone to visit me. He wanted me to die in sorrow and depression while living in peace with his second wife and children. Nigerians should please safe me from him.”
Meanwhile, the first son of the family, Kola Ishola, while speaking with our correspondent said “All what my mother narrated were the truth. I had to step it at a stage and asked him what our mother did which called for the punishment he subjected him with her condition. Instead of saying anything, he would scold me and chased me away. He never responsible for our tuition fee till I graduated from UNILAG.
Currently, he has been coming around to threaten that he would throw mummy out with her condition and also sell this house. This is the house that was bought by our mummy. He has abandoned us here for many years now with a new wife in our former house that he and mummy built.”
However, when contacted on phone, Mr Ishola said he knew nobody bearing Mrs Sandra Ishola. He also said he wouldn’t want to speak on the matter.
Peak News 