IN-LAWS ‘THROW OUT’ CHILDLESS WINDOW OF LATE TARABA LAWMAKER
The in-laws of Rukkayya, widow of late Taraba lawmaker Abdulmumini Dame, have reportedly thrown her out of her matrimonial home.
Rukkayya was reportedly dispossessed of the home she shared with the late Dame in Jalingo just weeks after the lawmaker representing Ardo–Kola in the state House of Assembly was laid to rest.
Narrating her ordeal to newsmen, Rukkayya accused her husband’s relatives of burying the lawmaker without her consent.
“While I insisted that Muslim rites be observed, his younger brother, Dennis Dame and other relatives said that he was not a Muslim. I ran to an Upper Area Court in Jalingo on the 30th of last month to seek redress and the court gave an order that we (all parties involved) shall maintain status quo and his body should not be buried. The corpse was deposited at a morgue.
“While we awaited further instructions from the court, his younger brother and other relatives, assisted by a top government official in the state government house defied the court order and ‘sneaked out’ the dead body and they observed traditional burial rites contrary to his Islamic belief. Muslim faithful later observed a special funeral rite in absentia for him.
“They had never said he was not a Muslim until his death and surprisingly Dennis and other uncles were among those who attended the wedding Fatiha in my father’s house in Yola barely nine years ago. He died in Yola at FMC and he got the usual Muslim bath rites. Together with his mother and brother, we took the corpse to Jalingo, then the crisis started by his younger brother, a situation that forced me to seek redress in court.
“As you can see I’m in Takaba (for the 40 days mourning period) but they didn’t allow me to observe it in this house and kept insulting threatening me,” she said.
Denying Rukkayya’s allegations however, Dennis Dame, the late lawmaker’s brother, said:
“We observed our traditions in the burial rites. She claims that he (lawmaker) is a Muslim but he is not! He just ‘kept’ her but not as wife. She didn’t even allow us to observe this mourning period but dragged us to court unnecessarily. We too have filed our suit at the State High Court, so the matter is before the court.”
