FOUR years on, the tears have refused to dry. First noticed was a tear, followed by streams of it. Intermittently, she dabbed her face with a white handkerchief, but the tears refused to stop.
For Veronica Ojih, the unending trauma is not just about the death of her husband, but the cruel manner in which it came: He was beheaded.
At a point, she was lost in thoughts. When nudged and brought back to the present, she forced a smile. It was followed by another round of tears.
The interview was brought to an abrupt end. By then, however, Veronica had said more than enough.
No thanks to religious intolerance, Boko Haram members demanded that her husband and scores of other abducted persons renounce their religion for Islam. Pastor George Ojih refused.
On 28 July 2009,
after being brought before their leader Mohammed Yusuf who was later killed in Police custody, Pastor Ojih was decapitated.
after being brought before their leader Mohammed Yusuf who was later killed in Police custody, Pastor Ojih was decapitated.
His widow, Veronica, recalled the circumstances that led to the killing in an interview with the Nigerian Compass yesterday.
As a 20-year-old, Veronica got married to Ojih of the Good News Evangelical Ministry, Maiduguri, Borno State in 2001. She could not have known that she would become a widow just eight years after.
Sadly, she became one on July 28, 2009 when Boko Haram’s Yusuf, and his deputy ordered that he be beheaded.
The late George, who hailed from Orokam, Ogbadigo Local Government Area of Benue State, had spent most of his life preaching Christ. Though death was staring him right in the face in Yusuf’s camp at the Railway Quarters, Maiduguri, he held steadfast to his faith.
He paid for his ‘intransigence’ with his life.
Ojih left two children and his wife carrying a seven-month old pregnancy.
“I met him in church in 2000 when I went to stay with my elder sister in Maiduguri,” Veronica, who was born in Kaduna but hails from the same local government as her late husband, told the Nigerian Compass.
“He proposed to me in February 2001. By March we did our engagement. July was the traditional wedding and September 29, 2001 was the church wedding in Maiduguri.”
The couple, who lived at L18, Low Cost Estate, Abbaganaram, Maiduguri, did not have their first child, a girl, until four years later. The second, a boy, came in 2006.
Veronica was heavy with her third child in 2009 when tragedy struck.
Her husband, who was doing a Masters course in Theology at the ECWA School in Jos, Plateau State, returned home on a Saturday for the weekend.
They went to church the following day and were relaxing at home in their sitting room when a neighbour called to inform them that Boko Haram sect members had taken over the neighbourhood.
She continued with what happened: “We started hearing gunshots. We peeped through the window and Yusuf’s sect members had surrounded the Low Cost building. We could see two or three standing in front of a flat but we were able to stay till the following morning.
“On Monday morning, the tension was much; people had already started leaving so I called my husband and told him we had to move out
“It took my husband some time to agree. He asked a neighbour that happened to be an elder in our church to drive me, the kids and his family to a safe place. My neighbour took us to a police station. But the place was already burnt and they didn’t really have arms again.
“The sect members were approaching the Police station so since there was nothing the {olice could do, we had to jump over a fence. That Monday and Tuesday we slept in Jerusalem, in the house of one of our pastors.
“On Tuesday, my husband and neighbour left to see what was happening in town. Shortly after they left, we started hearing gunshots. I started trying his number but it wasn’t connecting. None of their numbers was connecting. I was able to connect my neighbour on Wednesday morning.”
It was the neighbour that later informed Veronica that they were apprehended by Boko Haram members when they returned to the Low Cost Estate.
“They took them to the camp of Mohammed. On reaching there, they collected their phones, tied their hands and legs and laid them on their backs facing up. They were telling them to denounce Christ and accept Islam. My husband being who he was, stood his ground and said he was not going to accept Islam.
“He was preaching to the Christians not to deny Christ. Some people could not stand the torture so they recanted.
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