Wife of popular radio presenter cries out:
My kid and I live at Banex junction with no roof over our heads
I don’t know her, she’s a blackmailer –Berekete

 The name Ahmed Isah, popularly known as Ordinary Ahmed, and president of the Berekete Family radio programme fame, rings a bell within and around the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

Currently, the popular radio presenter is in the news but for the wrong reason. The soothing voice on radio whose  programme addresses social crises may get  a piece of his taunts if the story of the woman we met in the street is anything to go by, then Berekete himself needs a Hembelembe radio outing to solve the puzzles.
A woman that lives around Banex Junction claimed she was married to be the presenter but was booted out their matrimonial home and now distraught.
Although Ahmed Isah, the real name behind the Berekete Family and Hembelembe show said he was indisposed to talk, someone who gave his name as Dave and a member of the Berekete Family, stood in for him and dismissed the woman’s story as a tissue of lies.
Isa’s radio programme has been a shelter and rallying point of sort for the oppressed, the downtrodden, and the needy in the society. Many people who knew him as social crusader, and reputable for  his capacity to address all manners of family and social problems including domestic violence like battery, divorce, victimisation and oppression of women and men.
Meanwhile, Hembelembe as acquaintances and friends popularly call him, has a sore point unknown to majority of his admirers. What would shock many is that the woman, Regina Hadiza Ahmed Isah who claimed to be his wife of seven years, has become a public nuisance at the heart of the Abuja metropolis, even as she  survives at the mercy of philanthropists. .
Her ordeal evokes emotions from persons that come in contact with her. In fact, it was shocking to observe that the woman who was  mistook for a lunatic because of the way she and the daughter live, by any stroke of imagination, be the wife of the respected social crusader.
With the clothes she claimed werewashed littering the grass lawn behind the Silverbird Galleria, towards the highway from the Central Area to Utako and the Sani Abacha Highway into Kado and Gwarimpa estates, and her seven-year old daughter, Mariam, hanged around her. Regina told Abuja Metro the story of her fall from grace to grass.
With the extent of good work of mending collapsing families, Miriam’s story sounded like fiction. Yet we decided to get to the roots of it and prove the woman right or wrong in her claims to be the wife of Ordinary Ahmed, a man of fame in reconciling the family differences of others, and also that the little girl with Miriam is his daughter.

Her story
It was out of curiosity that Abuja Metro  while driving by that Sunday afternoon stopped by to know what a pitiable woman and the daughter could be doing at such an odd place.
Candid enough, Abuja Metro had mistook her for a lunatic or someone that needed help and stopped to ask questions. That inquiry turned out to be interesting.
“For your information, I am the wife of Ahmed Isah, the man that anchors Berekete Family programme on radio. I have six children for him from three pregnancies, four sons and two daughters. I had  a triplet and twins twice. I am a Nigerian from Obudu in Cross River State. I am of a Christian background.
I left my lucrative job in Accra, Ghana to come home to Nigeria to rescue my marriage. On arrival, Ahmed rented an appartment for me and my daughter while he lived in another place probably with another woman. But when the house almost collapsed on us, we had to leave. He never cared to know how we fared there.
Since then, we have been living as destitute in open places around the Banex Plaza for the past three months. It has not been easy for us since then, because we were exposed to all manner of challenges.

Meeting Ahmed
I met him right in my compound in Obudu through his uncle, who was the then Imam of the Mosque in my town. My parents and all my relatives knew him very well. The first challenge I had was that my parents did not support the marriage.
But we had to use my admission into the University of Ghana to leave Nigeria and deceive my parents to seal the marriage there. My parents did not attend the wedding we had in a Catholic Church in 2007, only the Nigerians in Accra did. We had to wed in the Catholic Church because they intervened and Ahmed had to even pay my dowry to my parents through the church, even though I left Catholic for Deeper Life Bible Church shortly after the wedding.
I studied Theatre Arts up to the masters degree at the University of Ghana. I had a good job in Ghana and was living comfortably and even driving good cars. Ahmed usually visited Accra to see us but all of a sudden, he stopped visiting.
When I was no longer getting satisfactory response anytime I spoke to him on telephone, I decided to come home to salvage my marriage. On arrival, I met him in his office around the Shariff Plaza, Wuse 2 but he warned me not to disclose my identity as his wife not even to his staff, promising to do it himself.
It was then I became worried especially when he secured accommodation for us at Deidei, an outskirt of Abuja, outside where he was living. The situation got from bad to worse when he beat me up inside his studio because I confronted a lady I suspected to be his wife. The story was all over the place then.
Since that incident, the situation has never been the same and even when I told him about the leaking roof of the accommodation he provided us, he kept telling me to be patient. I had to pack out of the building before it fell on us.
I expected him to secure a job for me in Nigeria since I am no longer familiar with the terrain in the country, but he never thought of doing that. I was supposed to join the civil defence corps before I left the country for Ghana.

Ahmed’s wife’s death
I am not sure that his wife died recently. I was in Accra and if such a thing happened, I am sure I was the one he claimed died. I remember my parents asked him if he was married before we contracted this marriage, but he denied ever being married.
I even expressed fears then marrying him as a Muslim, but he assured me that he was not married. Although we parted ways for three months before finally sealing the marriage, I don’t know if he got married that time. I only came to Nigeria to hear that he lost a wife.

Experiences since arriving Nigeria
After renting the accommodation in Deidei, he used to visit us and sometimes send money for our upkeep but when we left the place because the structure was half collapsed to the extent of not risking living there, we have been hanging on the loose with no home to settle in for three months.
He passes along the open place we stay around the Banex junction every time he is going to his office. There was even one day my daughter sighted his car in the traffic light and ran to meet him, he gave him some money.

Parents aware of her destitution
I may not precisely know because I have lost their contacts. I don’t even know how to locate them and even if I know how to do so, I don’t even know if they will accept me back as their daughter after all that transpired during the intrigue to get married to Ahmed.

What next
It will be very difficult to tell you what is next for me because I don’t even know where to start. My marriage is crumbling, there is uncertainty over my parents accepting me and I have also lost my job in Ghana. Where will I start from?
It is not really easy for me. Look at me looking very haggard, an indication of the difficulty we are passing through now. It is becoming difficult to survive with the little money he gives us whenever he wishes.
I know he stays at Jikwoyi but it pains me that he knows what I am passing through now and here in Abuja, yet could not do anything. There is no day I don’t speak with him on telephone and I keep him informed about my movement around Abuja. He kept telling me to be patient but I am ready to go back to my parent if they will accept me.

Custody of children
The children are with him and he should be in the best position to explain. I left them with a maternal uncle in Accra while coming back to Nigeria. But few weeks ago when I called the person in custody of the children, my uncle’s wife laughed, and asked me whether I have not settled with my husband.
She told me that she was supposed to ask me about the children but I was asking her. She said that my husband came for the children and they have given them to him. I have told Ahmed to confirm the information but he simply asked me if there is anything wrong with that.
A week later, a lady had met me, told me that somebody directed her to where I stay and asked if I am Ahmed Isah’s wife. She claimed to be his sister and told me that she saw my children with Ahmed’s mother at his house in Kaduna. She further confirmed that they are of the same age and sex I described, promising to return but since then, I have not heard anything from her.
I decided to take only the eldest daughter because it won’t be easy for me to coordinate all of them. Again, it is not always easy to separate twins. I was also advised to come with my daughter because it might require her confirming my claim that Ahmed is my husband, even though I never expected the situation would degenerate to this extent.
In summary, he is in custody of the children and knows where they are. I have strong belief that my parents will come for me. I am sure they are aware that I am in Abuja but even if they come, I don’t know if they will forgive me for what I did to them to marry Ahmed.
Before now, my father had told me he cannot harbour me with those children. He also made it clear that since they have a father, he should bear the responsibilities of bringing them up.

The marriage was roses
It used to be full of roses and I had a Hummer SUV I drove in Accra which he bought for me. As I said, I worked there and lived in a mansion. Surprisingly, if Ghanaians see me in this condition now, they will despise Nigerians. No Ghanaian will respect any Nigeria in Accra with me in this condition now. What I am now is a direct opposite of where Ahmed placed me in Ghana.

Plans to return to Accra
I would have loved to return but I may have made the mistake in the first place. You can’t believe that the company I was working with was still sending my salary in the first three months I left Ghana. I had applied for casual leave to come home and remedy my marriage. They however stopped the salary after three months. Maybe I would have gone back within that period to continue with my job.
Request to Ahmed
The biggest request I want to make to him is to establish me. He should give me money to take care of myself and if I must even go home, I have a piece of land to fall back on. Anywhere he wants me to be, he should take that decision very fast because we are no longer safe where we stay now in the open.
He sent a text message to me, telling me that if I sleep off men’s nest, men will sleep off my own nest. I told him I did not understand but he re-texted that if you want to be successful in life, you have to submit to other successful persons. Since she admitted that the marriage was once good, what she did not explain is what caused the problem from her own end, or if the failure of the union  was her making in any form.

Fear of molestation
Who will do that with the way I look now. If you have not interacted with me, won’t you mistake me for a lunatic? I don’t even take care of myself and who will see a woman in this haggard form and feel attracted.
However, my husband knows what he is doing because he had told the policemen to watch over me at the Banex junction where I stay. He also warned them not to let me know of the arrangement with them. I stay in an open place and when it rains, we run into any place close by for shelter.

Berekete speaks:
I don’t know her, but sure someone uses her against me
Abuja Metro tried to contact Ahmed Isah on phone number 0803788***** and he said: “If you look at her you will know that you are dealing with a mad woman. Some people are using her.”
Later, one Dave who claimed to come from the Berekete Family called Abuja Metro and debunked the allegations.
This conversation ensued between him and Abuja Metro.
Berekete: You said a lady came to the office with a complaint?
Abuja Metro: Yes. But we met her in the street where she told her story.
Berekete: What is the complaint all about?
Abuja Metro: I thought he would have briefed you because I discussed with him.
Berekete: You know that he has not been feeling fine. He has been off-air for well over three to four months.
Abuja Metro: A woman alleged that she is his wife and Ahmed Isah threw her out and she has been living like a wretch ever since.
Berekete: Did she show you the pictures of their marriage? Were they married traditionally or was there anything to prove that ok, this is my wife either through customary, western wedding or something like that with pictures as evidence?
Abuja Metro: We met her on the street
Berekete: Ok, you met her on the street. Why?
Abuja Metro: We met her on the street and we were wondering what she was doing there before she narrated her story.
Berekete: You people met her on the street? Ok.
Abuja Metro: Yes. It was not in a home to have such things you demand as proof.
Berekete: My brother, if somebody says she is …….
Abuja Metro: Listen sir, we are here to verify things. We are not here to legalise this issue or indict anybody. We were told a story and we want to know how true or false.  We are asking whether it is true or not that Ahmed Isah threw her wife out.
Berekete: You are a journalist, I suppose?
Abuja Metro: Yes
Berekete: When somebody gives you information, the other party has the right to ……
Abuja Metro: That was why I called him because I wanted to balance my report. I got information and I wanted to balance it and be sure of what I have. I wanted to hear from him too. First of all, while we have not concluded that what she said is true about Isah, but she was articulate enough with details in her story not to be mistaken for one that lost her brain, and we had to follow up and be sure.
Berekete: My brother, let me tell you to the best of my knowledge. I think something is wrong somewhere with that woman. Do you understand?
Abuja Metro: Yes.
Berekete: Last year, a woman came, one woman from Obudu. She said that she worked as a civil defender. She said that she was a volunteer with the Civil Defence. So, we asked whether she had evidence to prove that, either with her uniform or something. I called the PRO of Civil Defence in Abuja, and requested for any evidence about her. I gave her N1000 to go to Civil Defence office.  She called me and said it is one of her bosses in Cross Rivers State. I said okay, let she come and get transport fare and go to Cross River State and get any paper. At least whatever happens, she can get any paper from where she was engaged….from the registry or whatever. She told me that her husband is a Moslem and the husband wanted to convert her to Islam. That was why she ran away. After about three or four months, she came back and said that fire gutted the house she lived in.
We went to the police station in Lugbe and laid down the allegation.
We called Ahmed and Ahmed said to her ‘I think you said that the child is my own, give her to me. I only have one child’ and she said no.
Ahmed fights for other peoples’ children. Ahmed, said:  ‘I have only one child. My wife died last year. Please, let me have the child’. My brother, there is somebody that is trying to be smart somewhere.
Welfare invited me one day and it was the same woman. Somebody is telling her what to do and what to say.
Abuja Metro: Please who are my speaking with?
Berekete: You called me now? I am giving facts on the issue.
Abuja Metro: I want to know you properly. I want to know who is speaking with me. It is not Ahmed Isah but somebody from Berekete family. The person should have a name.
Berekete: My name is Dave.
Abuja Metro: Ok, Dave.
Berekete: In fact, that is the much I can go on this. The police command is aware at the moment. We are going to charge the matter to court. Whoever is fanning the embers from wherever will soon be known. We are going to conduct a DNA on the baby. DNA will prove it right or wrong.

Destitute Hembelembe family