Obumnaeme Akunyili, the son of Mrs. Dora Akunyili and Dr. Chike Akunyili, has spoken about the death of his parents.
During an interview with Chude Jideonwo, Obumnaeme, who is the Director-General at the Anambra State Project Monitoring and Management Office, said his mother who was a former Minister of Information went to a number of popular Nigerian pastors in a bid to get healed when she was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.
He said many of them used the opportunity to collect money from her while giving her false hope. He stated that what the men of God did to his mother a “divine hustle.”
Obumnaeme revealed that his late mother spent a lot of money, sowed all the seeds as the religious leaders including Pastor Enoch Adeboye, General Overseer of Redeemed Christian Church of God promised her that she would be healed.
“She was more like God would heal me; was it Adeboye? She went to who is who; she spent all the money, sowed all the seed. So, I felt it was a racket. In Nigeria, we don’t call it crime or anything, but I felt there was a hustle,” he said.
“She went to; is it Pastor Adeboye’s place in Lagos for like a week? She came back and said they needed to do a scan that God had healed her. And I remember my father was crying when he was taking her to do the scan. He knew what they would see. And he wasn’t trying to shut it down; he was trying to dampen expectations.
“But my mum, you know how someone is like ‘God has healed me’. And they go and they see the mass of the cancer there, grown larger, and my mum just became a shell for like three days.
“And you just see someone, a larger-than-life figure just whittling away every day.”
Also speaking about his father who was murdered by unknown gunmen in Anambra, he said, “I’m still dealing with it. I was with my dad that day. We went to the event together. We came back home, I took the Onitsha road, I saw him go this side, and suddenly, I’m getting calls that my cousin had been shot.
“I found out my father had died by watching the video of him dying on the floor on Facebook. That’s how I knew my father died, I found out on Facebook. And this was a larger-than-life man. And just seeing him struggling to breathe and everybody is there videoing it.”
He pointed out the sad reality that no one went to his dying father to comfort him; instead they stood by and filmed him bleeding from a gaping hole in his face.
He said, “I think the hospital that could have saved him wasn’t there but just the fact that people are trying to save you can make you hold on. Nobody even made an effort.”
