The Rivers State House of Assembly, former civil servant Pastor Rachael Koko’s wife opened up on how her husband was kidnapped without release in 2013, the challenges she went through.
It was learnt that your husband was kidnapped in October 2013. Can you narrate the circumstance that led to his abduction 10 years ago?
It has been a long journey and time but to us, it is still fresh. He told me that he was having a programme in church and he said he would like to have a meal prepared by me for him. One hour after I arrived home, I heard a lot of gunshots beyond my imagination. It was so scary that I asked all the children at home to go downstairs and lie down flat since we did not know where the gunshots were coming from. Our house was a storey building. The gunshots continued and persisted for more than 10 minutes. So, we became afraid; we had a flood light and my generator was on. After a while, the gunshots stopped, and after about 10 minutes, we noticed that for about the next 30 minutes, nothing was going on. So, I asked them (the children) to come upstairs. So, many people called and asked me what was going on in my place. I replied, ‘I don’t know. I said so causally.
How did you get to hear about the
news of your husband’s abduction?
Not quite long, I saw a car headlight coming from outside, and I went to peep through. We didn’t know the people and none of us agreed to come out but everybody was indoors. So, one of my boys and a church member were passing by. He (one of my boys) then said, ‘Mummy Koko, where are you?’ I told him I was in the house, and he said, ‘Okay, what of Daddy?’ I told him that my husband went out and he should be on his way back. I also told him from where I was that I had been trying to call him. We had a private phone and for security reasons, we used that phone to call each other anytime we had an emergency.
I told the guy I had been calling my husband, but he had not been picking up the phone, which was very unusual. The boy then told me, ‘Mummy, which car did Daddy use?’ I then told him about the car Daddy used. He said as he was standing, he could see the car, which was about two to three buildings from our house, not knowing that the headlight I was seeing was from his car. He was abducted from his car and the gunshots were targeted at stopping him. The lady who was living very close to the house heard them say, ‘We will waste you; we’re going to waste you, open the door.’
He (my husband) refused to open the car door for a while and that was why the gunshot continued. So, he had no choice but to open the door. All the calls I made to our security number were not picked up. They left the phone in the car; cash and a lot of things were left. Kidnapping was something else in Rivers State then; it was rampant. So, that was how they took him on that 5th day of October.
The incident happened shortly after he came back from the US; it was two weeks after we came back. We went on holiday with the kids and just came back. The men who kidnapped him were saying, ‘You think you can run away? We’ve been waiting for you.’ The lady opposite our building that saw everything going on, was even pleading that the man should open the door and that they would not kill him, but my husband was a bit stubborn, he initially refused.
At what point did you realise that your husband was no more?
I didn’t realise he was no more because for over two years, we were still believing that we would find him and we were going to places in search of him. Some people came and gave us information about seeing someone like him. I was going from one place to another. As a pastor, I was dealing with all these boys, including all these militants. I preached and interacted with them; I preached and convinced some of them to follow Christ and they assured me, saying, ‘Mummy Koko, don’t fear, we will take you from one place to another.’ They (the kidnappers) say I should not bring in the police but at every point, I alerted the police because I wouldn’t have been able to be going there on my own. But after a while, they said I should stop coming and that they would carry out the search for me. However, for over two years, I became sick and lost my appetite. I almost died if not for Christ. My husband’s brothers and my son who flew back from the UK were doing the search for my husband while I was sick.
How did you feel when it dawned on you that Mr Kenneth Koko might have been killed?
It is still on us, even now, but our hope is in Christ. As someone who fears God, I know he’s no more and I can attest to this. It is just to move on and believe in God with the hope that wherever he is, he has eternal rest. It’s still fresh in our memory; our lastborn cannot get out of it. She’s in Canada because I had to take her out of the country. Before my husband was abducted, he registered her to go stay in Canada since the other two children were there. So, after they kidnapped him in October, her school was supposed to start in February, so I took her down there and handed her over to her elder siblings before I came back.
How old was he when he was whisked away?
He was 63 years old.
What was his occupation?
My husband was a civil servant attached to the Rivers State House of Assembly. He worked with politicians. He was the head of Estate and Works.
Do you think anyone has any reason to have abducted and killed your husband?
Well, for everything that happens in life, there must be a reason behind it. Of course, there must be somebody somewhere who had him kidnapped because his kidnap was not for ransom. They never told us to pay any ransom. We waited for them to call us for ransom but it never happened. Even though I was taken out of my house, people were there; no letter was sent, nothing was asked. The only thing we heard was that some documents were with him. After a while, I even had to run away from Rivers State. I was being trailed, being pursued. So, my daughter who was married in Abuja came to pick me up in Port Harcourt. That was how I relocated to Abuja.
There were claims that his abduction and murder had a political undertone. How will you react to this?
Well, I believe it strongly but without evidence to back it up, what can one do? So, something I don’t have evidence about, I don’t say it but I know it (his death) has a political undertone.
Can you recall if your husband had
any issues with anyone before the incident?
No, my husband was a very quiet person. We don’t believe so much in the church these days but while he was serving God, he served God with all his might and he was somebody that could not be convinced to change documents or say something that was not the truth. Maybe it was one of the reasons he was abducted.
What efforts did you make to find him and maybe save his life?
As I said, we looked for him for seven years until the government declared him dead. For seven years, we looked for him everywhere, Ondo, Ogun State. There was no place we didn’t go to, we went to the prison; the police were helping us; the DSS was also helping us because I had some of them in church. They went everywhere; there was no place we didn’t go.
What did the police say during and after their investigation?
Till today, as far as they are concerned, the case is still open because I kept asking them if they had forgotten the case and they said the case was closed after seven years. I asked them to reopen the case. Why will they say the case has closed when the body of my husband has not been found?
You are currently in the United States of America. Why did you decide to travel out of the country after your husband’s death?
I’m here on a visit: I left the
country late last year but I refused to come back because, since last year, I
was to see my children in Canada, then visit my younger brother whose child is
ill. I’ve been with that child since he was three years. So, he listens to just
me. Most of the time, I come to the United States to stay with him and take
care of him. When I got here, I was getting many threat letters even after a
decade of losing my husband. My son is a lawyer in Nigeria and he called while
I was in Canada and said, ‘Mum, I received a letter from someone I don’t know,
no name on it and he was asking for documents. He read the letter to me because
they didn’t want to show me something that would break me down because I have
high blood pressure. So, he read a portion that says, ‘We know where you are;
every one of you, we know where your daughter is’, and that’s why I’m staying
here now.
TEMITOPE ADETUNJI
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