Enugu—A 69 year old herbalist, Chief Simon Odo, who
married an 18 year old girl, Chidinma, as his 57th wife last
November has said that he would not marry again, having
had a fair of women in his life. Chidinma was married from
Okutu, in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State.
Odo, also known variously as Onuwa, King Solomon of
Africa or King of Satan was however married to 68 women
but some of them had earlier died. Augustina Odo (nee
Asogwa) and Virginia, nee Mogbo from Oraifite were among
the dead ones.
However, Odo spoke in an interview with the South East
Voice at his palatial home at Aji, Enugu Ezike in Igboeze
North Local Government Area of Enugu State.
Emeka, first son, Franca, one of the wives and Onuwa
Onuwa who was armed with an Onward note book where
names of his wives and over 200 children were listed
according to their dates of birth said that his first son,
Emeka was born on December 15, 1969. “I was born in 1947
on the day they had an eclipse of the sun and the moon.
There was darkness in the afternoon on the day I was born.
I was the only son of my parents.
“I was baptised as a Christian in the Catholic Church and I
even became a mass servant under Rev Father Desmond
McGlade. I however became a herbalist because of
circumstances beyond my control. As I said, I was the only
son of my parents but because some of his relations
wanted to take over his landed property, they poisoned me.
I contracted tuberculosis and had to be treated for years.
At a point, I was even unable to walk for about five years
because I became lame.
“I ran to Ondo State in the South West, where I trained to
become a herbalist at the age of 15, before returning to the
village. I married 15 wives when my father was alive and
the situation prolonged his life. He died in 1992 at the ripe
old age of over 90 years. My first son has seven children
and four grandchildren. “Any of my children who chooses
to become a Christian is free to do so, provided he/she
must become a Catholic. I don’t like the Pentecostal
churches.”
The new bride, Chidinma On feeding of his large family,
Onuwa said, “People think that I feed many of them but
this is not true. Most of my children are grown up. The
boys among them usually marry and go to their own
houses just like the girls who marry and follow their
husbands to their places.”
However, my wives cook food for the whole family in turns.
For example, if it is the turn of Ada or Omada to cook, she
would invite five of her colleagues to assist her in cooking.
One woman cooks for everybody in the house at a time but
my other wives would always assist such a person.”
Asked if any of his sons has taken after him as a herbalist,
he said, “I will not encourage them to do so. I don’t want
my sons to take after me because some of them will do
bad things with my medicine. As a herbalist, I have never
killed anybody or thought of evil against anybody but I do
not trust that my children would be upright like me. That is
why I will not encourage them to inherit my medicine but I
may bequeath them to some of my younger children, not
the old, greedy ones.”
Meanwhile, it was learnt that although Onuwa abhorred
seeing his children attend churches other than the Catholic
church, seven of them were ordained pastors at the Lord’s
Chosen Church. Hitherto, some of them attended Catholic
and Anglican churches while many of them took after their
father in his business. However, the ordination of the
pastors brought about a radical Christian awakening in the
extra-large family of Chief Odo.
In the past four years, there had been a simmering
misunderstanding between the pastors and their father
regarding his herbal practice. The pastors were said to be
mounting heavy pressure on him to repent and turn to
Jesus, a demand the herbalist spurned. Odo, said to have
lost one of his wives last February, had arranged for the
burial programme, which his pastor’s sons rejected and
rather organized a prayer programme for her burial,
triggering confusion in the family.
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