69 -year -old Herbalist Marries 18 -year -old Girl As 57 th Wife

A 69 year old herbalist,
Chief Simon Odo , who
married an 18 year old girl,
Chidinma , as his 57 th 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 .
Source : Vanguard