While speaking in an exclusive interview with the South East Voice at his palatial home at Aji, Enugu Ezike in Igboeze North LGA of Enugu State, a 70-year-old herbalist, Simon Odo Okoro, said he has divorced his 57 wives after accusing some of his children of allegedly sleeping with some of his wives.
Odo, also known variously as Onuwa, King Solomon of Africa or King of Satan had altogether been married to 69 women but some of them had earlier died.
The herbalist who married his 57th wife in November 2015 and vowed not to marry again, having had a fair share of women in his life, broke his vow not marry again by quickly re-marrying one of the youngest of his divorced wives, an 18-year-old Chidinma, who pleaded with him to marry her so that she could take care of him as an old man.
“The girl who lured me to marry her returned from the United States. She told me to marry her so that she would take care of me as an old man. She is from Enugu State. However, a month after the marriage was consummated, she told me to sack the youngest one, Chidinma and I became furious with her because that was not why I married her. I beat her and she left,” he said.
While speaking on the allegation that some of his children (names withheld) not only slept with some of his wives but planned to kill him, Okoro said he would disown any of his sons involved in criminal activities.
Onuwa who was armed with an Onward note book where named 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 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.”
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.”
