A real-life Nollywood story happened in a community in Anambra where the siblings of an American returnee, identified as Peter Mokwuah, reportedly held him prisoner in his own house for up to a year, during which he became emaciated and was waiting for death.
The story was shared by the daughter of the victim, Ifunanya Mokwuah, who had to fly back home to Nigeria to rescue his father.
According to Ifunanya, her father lived and worked in New York for 25 years and, upon retirement, decided to go back to his village where he had built a mansion for himself and his family.
All seemed to be well, and he was communicating regularly with his family back in the United States until he suddenly stopped around 2020.
Ifunanya said this was intriguing to her because, as the first daughter, she was very close to her father and could not imagine what could keep her father from calling her for months.
She said many of her calls to her father went unanswered, and when the calls were picked it was by her aunt, who would sometimes say she was cooking in the kitchen and her father was upstairs.
At other times, the aunt would tell her she was out of the house, but that Peter was well, and she would ask him to call her back when she got home. He never did.
After about six months of not hearing from her father directly, Ifunanya was worried stiff, not knowing if he was dead or alive. In a series of videos, wherein Ifunanya shared her testimony, she recalled how the Holy Spirit instructed her she had to visit Nigeria to save her dad, and she obeyed.
He said her dad could never be in need of money because he drew a monthly pension of $5000 (about N7.5m) and had a mansion and cars at his disposal. Upon that, she said she would often send money to him again, especially when they were not hearing from him, thinking that he probably ran out of cash.
Ifunanya said she asked for two weeks off at her place of work and travelled down to Nigeria in January 2022.
She spent part of the holiday in Lagos and proceeded to their village in Enugwu Ukwu, but realised that a truckload of sand had been dumped in front of her father’s gate, making it impossible for any vehicle to enter or depart. That was the first sign of trouble she noticed, but she saw more when she proceeded to climb over the sand and bang the gate.
According to her, her uncle and aunt came out and furiously demanded what she was doing in Nigeria.
“They threw sand on me and called me a prostitute, telling me to go away”, she recalled.
Ifunanya said she refused to leave and insisted on entering her father’s compound. She recalled that the commotion drew the attention of villagers and youths who demanded to know what was happening.
Upon convincing them that she was the first daughter of the owner of the compound, the villagers began to challenge the uncle, called Frances and the aunt, Josephine, asking why they were preventing a daughter from seeing her father.
The crowd reportedly attempted to beat Frances and Josephine for what they called an abomination, but were protected by the elders.
Ifunanya said they were able to enter and access the ground floor of the three-storey mansion her father built in the village.
At that point, Ifunanya said Josephine claimed her father had travelled to Abuja and put a call through to another brother of Peter who stayed in Abuja.
The brother, identified as Uncle Christopher, corroborated the claim that Peter was with him in Abuja, but he stepped out of the house and would call Ifunanya back.
Ifunanya said the Holy Spirit told her it was a lie and that her father was upstairs, and she then insisted that she would like to go upstairs to see her father’s room.
After some resistance, the youths forced their way in and led Ifunanya upstairs, where she found her father on a dirty mattress on the floor.
The legs were already skinny, and his beard and nails were very long and unkempt. Ifunanya said she broke down in tears to see her father in that state. According to her, her father recognised her instantly and was very happy to see her apparently thinking that finally salvation had arrived for him.
