For the family of the late Oghenekaro Ologe from Isoko South Local Council in Delta State, the pain of losing him has never truly ended.

On December 17, 2017, Oghenekaro was electrocuted at his residence while supervising workers. A pumping machine with exposed wiring allegedly discharged a fatal current, killing him instantly.

What was meant to be a routine day became the day his family lost a brother, a husband and a father.
Those who knew Oghenekaro Ologe remember him as an industrious man who lived for his family.

His brother, Emu Ologe, said through years of relentless effort, the deceased built a considerable estate, acquiring multiple properties across the Satellite/FESTAC axis of Lagos, running commercial shops and providing a comfortable life for his wife and their four children – three girls and a boy.

“He loved those children with everything in him,” he said.

Following his death, the family decided to allow the widow space to grieve. They stepped back, permitting her to manage the estate and raise the children without interference, a decision they believed was in the best interest of all parties.

But according to the family, the situation began to deteriorate.

It said communication with the widow Ogaga Oghene Odiru (maiden name) grew increasingly strained for reasons unknown to the family.

“Repeated attempts by family members to check on the welfare of the children were rebuffed,” the bereaved brother said. Still, the family held onto hope that circumstances would improve.

In 2022, a fire outbreak occurred in Adosoba community, where Oghenekaro’s house is located. The family immediately visited, repaired the house, and the kids were overjoyed to see them. They spent some time with the kids, and the atmosphere was hopeful. At that point, they felt things would improve, but little did they know more disaster was unfolding. ‎

The family recalled when one of Oghenekaro’s young daughters fell critically ill and the members reached out to a mutual friend to communicate that they would love to see the children, but the wife refused to pick calls and informed the family that the children travelled to her siblings.

hen Oghenezino, the eldest child, fell ill, rather than seeking immediate medical attention, the widow first took the child to a church for prayers, while simultaneously assuring the family that the girl had recovered and was in good health.

The family members said they were kept in the dark about the true state of her health. By the time the child was eventually presented at a hospital, her condition had deteriorated beyond recovery. She did not survive.

“That loss broke our hearts all over again,” the family said.

Subsequently, the family began receiving disturbing reports that Oghenekaro’s properties were being sold or donated as “seed of faith” to prophets and churches by the widow.

Then came what the family describes as the most devastating revelation of all. It claims that the property on which Oghenekaro was buried at Abule Ado community, Ado Soba village, has been put up for sale, and that an engineer has been engaged to prepare it for sale.

According to family sources, the widow remarried without their knowledge and is now expecting a child with her new spouse.

In what the family describes as an act of profound desecration, the engineer was allegedly instructed to exhume Oghenekaro’s remains as a condition for the transaction, a process carried out without notifying them. ‎

“When we heard that our brother’s grave had been opened and his remains removed without our knowledge, we were shattered. It felt like losing him all over again,” one of the family members said.

The family stressed that their most pressing concern was not the loss of property, but the welfare of the four children.

Sources close to the family indicate the children had been rendered homeless, moving between churches and the homes of well-meaning strangers in search of shelter and stability.

The family says they made repeated appeals to the widow to relinquish guardianship, so they could assume responsibility for the children’s upbringing and education; appeals that have, to date, been declined.

“We are ready to raise them, send them to school and give them the stability their father worked so hard for,” the grieving brother said.

He stated that the family chose to speak publicly not out of a desire for conflict, but out of a conviction that silence is no longer an option, not while the memory of their brother is dishonoured and the future of his children remains uncertain.

“Our brother worked all his life for those children,” he said. “Today, we don’t even know where they sleep.”

Perhaps, no one carries the weight of this ordeal more quietly than Madam RekiaOloge, Oghenekaro’s mother.

For nine years, she has watched from a distance, unable to hold her grandchildren, unable to know whether they are fed, whether they are safe, whether they remember her.

The uncertainty, the family says, has taken a visible toll. The grief of losing her son compounded by the anguish of being cut off from the children he left behind has manifested into a deep psychological and emotional distress, a condition the family describes as an affliction born entirely of heartbreak.

“She cries every day,” her son says. “Every single day, she knows those children are not okay. She can feel it. And there is nothing she can do.”

The family says the grandmother’s deteriorating health has become an additional burden, emotionally and financially.

“We are not just asking for justice for Oghenekaro; we are asking for his mother. We are asking for a woman who deserves to look her grandchildren in the eyes before it is too late,” the family added.

Efforts to contact the widow, on 0706 401 6764, her identified phone number, proved abortive as the phone has remained switched off.