The widow of newspaper vendor, Ifeanyi Okereke, who was killed by a stray bullet fired by one of the security aides of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila in Abuja, has distanced herself from his family’s N500 million compensation demand from Gbajabiamila.
The family in a letter written by Nigerian lawyer Mike Ozekhome (SAN), had asked Gbajabiamila to pay the family of the deceased a compensation of N500 million within seven days or face legal action.
This came after the speaker had promised to take care of the children and wife of the deceased.
The demand made by the family was written in a letter by Ozekhome, on behalf of the deceased father and younger brother, Destiny Okoreke.
However, the newspaper vendor’s wife Josephine Okoreke, in an interview yesterday, November 26 has stated that she was not informed about the N500 million compensation demand made by her late husband’s family.
She stated that the speaker Gbajabiamila had already promised to take up the financial responsibility of the deceased family and to train her children in school.
Josephine also said she was surprised to hear that her late husband’s family demanded compensation. She added that she is not interested in anything that will jeopardize the promise already made by the speaker in regards to her children.
Josephine stated that she wants justice for her husband, while revealing that her husband secured a new job before his death.
“All I want now is that the person that killed my husband to face justice, he was the bread winner of the family and he just secured a job with the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment,” she said.
