On June 5, 1997, Access Holdings Plc’s former Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Herbert Wigwe’s brother, Osita Wigwe, met his untimely demise in a road accident while travelling from Lagos to Port Harcourt.
In a 2018 interview with TheCable, Father of Osita, Shyngle Wigwe, and his wife, Stella Wigwe, shared the harrowing details of the incident, recounting the deep grief and sorrow that enveloped them during that dark period.
Shyngle Wigwe narrated the circumstances of Osita’s death, explaining that Osita had a head-on collision with a Mercedes 911 heavy lorry.
According to him, at the accident scene, bystanders struggled to extricate him from the wreckage.
The aftermath unfolded as they took the damaged car to Osita’s grandmother in the village, informing her that the owner of the vehicle had been involved in a fatal accident.
Despite not knowing the victim’s identity, she initially dismissed the possibility, stating, ‘it can’t be my child.’
“It happened on the 5th of June 1997. “It was just a few miles from our hometown and my mother was at home. He had a head-on collision with a Mercedes 911 heavy lorry. They struggled to get him out of the car. They took the car to my mother in the village and told her the owner of the car was involved in an accident and was dead. But not knowing who the victim was, she said, ‘It can’t be my child,” he stated.
Subsequently, they transported the car to Osita’s brother in Port Harcourt, who tried to contact Herbert Wigwe in Lagos but couldn’t reach him as they were at the Redemption camp.
Notably, Herbert’s mother was at home, just a few miles away from the heartbreaking incident.
“They now took the car to my brother in Port-Harcourt, who telephoned Lagos, but we were at the Redemption camp and didn’t get me. They got my other son, Herbert, and a good friend of mine who went to the camp and just went to the General Overseer, Pastor Adeboye. The G.O. called the elders to go to my house, while they got someone to excuse me from the meeting. I was told that Pastor Adeboye was waiting for me in my house. ‘Why would Pastor Adeboye be waiting for me in my house?’ I wondered as I raced back home from the camp. I got home and met some elders and Deputy General Overseer.
“I was later told, ‘our brother had gone to be with the Lord’. I was like, ‘Which Lord? This was a boy who was totally sold out to the Lord and we believed one who is sold out to God doesn’t die. It couldn’t have been that boy! I didn’t believe it until I sent someone to Port-Harcourt to see the body, and he came back to tell me that ‘daddy, we have to go ahead with the burial quickly because the body is in bad shape. It was then that I believed. I didn’t think such would happen to me. It was as if someone took forceps to pull out my heart.
“This boy had the attributes of both a daughter and that of a son. He was one in a million and a solution provider to all family problems. I didn’t know that God was just showing me a part of His love for a moment and he took him back home. Then, I didn’t feel life was worth living anymore. His younger brothers were young and not as firmly rooted. It was a big loss. He was 34 years old. We related like brothers, not as father and son. It took me quite a while to recover and I said to myself, ‘It’s only with God that you can survive such a thing,” he added.
Reflecting on their relationship, Shyngle Wigwe emphasized that he and Osita related like brothers rather than father and son.
The recovery process was a prolonged and challenging journey, and he concluded, “It took me quite a while to recover, and I said to myself, ‘It’s only with God that you can survive such a thing.'”