Couple (8)

After 16 years, couple is blessed with twins • I spent N10m to have a child – Man 
From OKEY SAMPSON, Aba 

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

 

When Chief Rems Uchendu (a.k.a Agunechemba 1 of Aba), set out to exit bachelorhood in 1992, he had in mind like any other man with strong Igbo blood in his veins to start having babies within the next nine months.
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Uchendu, wife and babies

He was convinced that the parcel he picked was well loaded and among the best and, therefore, had no need to worry about.

 

But wishes, they say, are not horses. For 16 tortuous years, Uchedu lived with her wife, Judith, but without a single child to show for the marriage. Chief Uchendu did his traditional marriage on June 6, 1992 and church wedding on November 28 of the same year.

 

As the problem lingers, Uchendu who hails from Ibeme Ugiri in Mbano Local Government Area of Imo State set out in search for a solution.

This took the husband and wife from one place to another; from one medical prescription to another, yet there was no headway.

 

In a chat with Daily Sun, Uchendu said: “I did everything humanly possible for 16 years to see if I could get a child, but there was no way. I spent more than N10 million in the search for just a child, in fact, all the money I made within that period was all spent, and still there was no solution.”

But one thing that the couple had going for them was their absolute faith in what God can do.

“After sometime, we took a decision that we would not go to any where again in search of a child; if God would not give us one, we will accept His wish after all we’ve tried as human beings. After that decision, we stopped all medications towards this direction and hoped wholly on God”, Uchendu said.

Uchendu, a Christian of the Catholic fold, decided to put his faith in God in practice as he went into knighthood and was conferred with the Knight of Saint John International (KSJ).

 

Two spectacular things happened during the period that preceded his initiation into knighthood in September 2007.

First, his wife who although may have disagreed with him on some issues, but definitely not on the issue of child bearing, vehemently opposed his idea of going into knighthood.

 

Her reason, according to Uchendu, was that, “when one is initiated into knighthood, he would not marry two wives. She was afraid my family would accuse her of luring me into knighthood in order to stop me from marrying another woman who would bear me children. I told her to relax because all the while, she never knew there was no pressure from my family to marry another woman because we are a Christian family”.

The second and more spectacular thing which happened within the period was that as Uchendu was attending programmes preparatory to his knighthood initiation, his wife became pregnant and they never knew.

 

His words: “As I was attending programmes preceding my initiation into the knighthood, I never knew my wife had taken in. When it became evident, I asked her to go for scanning tests and the results showed he had only one child in her womb and we prepared for her delivery based on the result of the scanning.

“But God in His infinite way of doing things, my wife in February 2008, delivered twins (a boy and a girl). One came out at exactly 5.00p.m. on that fateful day and the second followed 30 minutes later,” he said.

 

As the twins, Prince Udochukwu and Princeness Adaeze were delivered, Uchendu said that at first he was confused, but later felt relieved.

He said everything around him changed as his house on School Road, Aba became a tourist site of sorts. People from far and near came to see for themselves if actually his wife given birth. Even some American doctors who attended to them in Nigeria when they were in search of the fruit of the womb, joined in the ecstasy of that moment. They went further to send gift items from America for the upkeep of the kids.

In the 16 years of waiting, wherever the couple went for medical tests, they were always said to be okay. But this never stopped people from cajoling them until it got to the point where they were in turn praised..

 

“Although within the 16 years of waiting, people said all sorts of things against us, but we were not bothered because we knew that one day, God will answer our prayers. After sometime, those who were cajoling and calling us all sorts of names, then turned around to praise and call us the best couple around,” he said.

Recently, the twins clocked two years and their father who had at their delivery presented a cow in fulfillment of the vow he made to God, treated them to a lavish birthday ceremony.

But like Oliver Twist, Chief Uchendu who asked for just a child, but God gave him two at once, is asking for more children, even as he said “at the same time, I will be contented with the twins if that’s all God has for me.”

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American Lesbian couple kicked out of Mall

Lesbian couple meets with shopping center officials over ouster

A lesbian couple who say they were asked to leave a North Carolina shopping center after sharing a kiss and a hug met with the center's property manager on Saturday.

"We welcomed the opportunity to sit down with the women and offer our sincere regrets over last week's incident," said George York, president of York Properties, which manages the Cameron Village shopping center in Raleigh, North Carolina. The incident took place Wednesday at Cameron Village.

Caitlin Breedlove told CNN affiliate WRAL that she and her partner were being affectionate but appropriate with one another when a security officer asked them to leave the shopping center.

The officer told the couple that they were being inappropriate and that "nobody wants to see that here at Cameron Village," Breedlove said, referring to the couple's homosexuality.

The couple asked to speak to the officer's supervisor...

Dan Palatucci, who manages the Flying Biscuit restaurant at the shopping center, where the couple had eaten before the incident, told WRAL that he voiced concern about the incident to Cameron Village's management.

On Saturday, York said his company is planning additional sensitivity training for its security personnel.

"We apologized that the women were offended, and we affirmed that Cameron Village and York Properties, Inc. have no tolerance for discrimination of any kind and believe all people deserve the right to be treated fairly in their work, homes and daily lives," York said in a statement.

A letter of apology was also sent to the women, he said.

Breedlove is a gay activist, but she says the incident wasn't planned. WRAL reported that the American Civil Liberties Union may take legal action over the episode.

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?m=02&d=20100826&t=2&i=189582288&w=320&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=2010-08-26T111423Z_01_BTRE67P0V8300_RTROPTP_0_SRILANKA-MAIDA Saudi couple tortured their Sri Lankan maid after she complained of a too heavy workload by hammering 24 nails into her hands, legs and forehead, officials said on Thursday.nigeria?action=dlattach;topic=44463.0;attach=21171;image

Nearly 2 million Sri Lankans sought employment overseas last year and around 1.4 million, mostly maids, were employed in the Middle East. Many have complained of physical abuse or harassment.

L.T. Ariyawathi, a 49-year old mother of three, returned on Friday after five months in Saudi Arabia.

Her family only realized what had happened to her when she complained of pain and they took her to see the doctor, Foreign Employment Bureau officials said.

"The landlord and the wife of the landlord hammered 24 nails into her when she complained of the heavy workload," Kalyana Priya Ramanayake, media secretary of the Foreign Employment Bureau, told Reuters.

Ariyawathi has been taken to hospital for surgery to remove the nails, which according to the maid were hammered in when they were hot...

X-rays showed one- to two-inch nails in her hands and legs, with one over her eyes, officials said.

The Foreign Employment Bureau is consulting the Attorney-General while the Sri Lankan External Affairs Ministry is to take the matter up with the Saudi government, officials said

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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Doctors removed 13 nails and five needles from a Sri Lankan maid who says the couple she worked for in Saudi Arabia hammered them into her body.

L.G. Ariyawathi, who was hospitalized with severe pain after returning Saturday from Saudi Arabia, has said the family she worked for punished her by heating the nails and needles before sticking them into her. X-rays showed that she had 24 nails and needles in her body, said Dr. Keerthi Satharasinghe of Kamburupitiya hospital, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the capital, Colombo.

The nails ranged in length from one to two inches (2.5 to 5 centimeters) while the needles were about one inch (2.5 centimeters) long. They were removed from her legs and forehead.

"The surgery is successful and she is recovering now," Satharasinghe said after the three-hour procedure.

He said six more needles in her hands could not be removed because the operation might damage her nerves and arteries, but that they would not be harmful to her.

Since being hospitalized, Ariyawathi, 49, has described the abuse meted out by her employers.

"They did not allow me even to rest. The woman at the house had heated the nails and then the man inserted them into my body," Ariyawathi was quoted as saying by the Lakbima newspaper.

She told the newspaper that she went to Saudi Arabia in March but was paid only two months' salary, with her employer withholding the rest to buy an air ticket to send her home.

About 1.5 million Sri Lankans work abroad, many as maids or drivers, to earn more than they can in their own impoverished country. Nearly 400,000 work in Saudi Arabia alone.

Sri Lanka's Foreign Employment Bureau said Ariyawathi had been too afraid to complain about the abuse to Saudi authorities, fearing that her employers might not let her return home.

Deputy Minister of Economic Development Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said the government would report the matter to the Saudi government and provide her compensation.

Saudi officials did not respond to requests for comment.

Nimal Ranawaka, labor counselor at the Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh, said the embassy had requested a meeting with Saudi officials.

"We informed Saudi authorities. They have to take action against the employer," Ranawaka said.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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A BLACK couple with their new baby yesterday - a white, blue-eyed BLONDE.

British Nmachi Ihegboro has amazed genetics experts who say the little girl is NOT an albino.

Dad Ben, 44, a customer services adviser, admitted: "We both just sat there after the birth staring at her."

Mum Angela, 35, of Woolwich, South London, beamed as she said: "She's beautiful - a miracle baby."
Ben told yesterday how he was so shocked when Nmachi was born, he even joked: "Is she MINE?"
He added: "Actually, the first thing I did was look at her and say, 'What the flip?'"
But as the baby's older brother and sister - both black - crowded round the "little miracle" at their home in South London, Ben declared: "Of course she's mine."
Blue-eyed blonde Nmachi, whose name means "Beauty of God" in the Nigerian couple's homeland, has baffled genetics experts because neither Ben nor wife Angela have ANY mixed-race family history.
Pale genes skipping generations before cropping up again could have explained the baby's appearance.
Ben also stressed: "My wife is true to me. Even if she hadn't been, the baby still wouldn't look like that.
"We both just sat there after the birth staring at her for ages - not saying anything."
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Doctors at Queen Mary's Hospital in Sidcup - where Angela, from nearby Woolwich, gave birth - have told the parents Nmachi is definitely no albino.
Ben, who came to Britain with his wife five years ago and works for South Eastern Trains, said: "She doesn't look like an albino child anyway - not like the ones I've seen back in Nigeria or in books. She just looks like a healthy white baby."..
He went on: "My mum is a black Nigerian although she has a bit fairer skin than mine.
"But we don't know of any white ancestry. We wondered if it was a genetic twist.
"But even then, what is with the long curly blonde hair?"
Professor Bryan Sykes, head of Human Genetics at Oxford University and Britain's leading expert, yesterday called the birth "extraordinary".
He said: "In mixed race humans, the lighter variant of skin tone may come out in a child - and this can sometimes be startlingly different to the skin of the parents.
"This might be the case where there is a lot of genetic mixing, as in Afro-Caribbean populations. But in Nigeria there is little mixing."
Prof Sykes said BOTH parents would have needed "some form of white ancestry" for a pale version of their genes to be passed on.
But he added: "The hair is extremely unusual. Even many blonde children don't have blonde hair like this at birth."

The expert said some unknown mutation was the most likely explanation.
He admitted: "The rules of genetics are complex and we still don't understand what happens in many cases."
The amazing birth comes five years after Kylie Hodgson became mum to twin daughters - one white and the other black - in Nottingham.
Kylie, now 23, and her partner Remi Horder, now 21, are both mixed race.
Even so the odds were estimated at a million to one.
The Sun told in 2002 how a white couple had Asian twins after a sperm mix-up by a fertility clinic.
Yesterday three-day-old Nmachi's churchgoing mum Angela admitted that she was "speechless" at first seeing her baby girl, who was delivered in a caesarean op.
She said: "I thought, 'What is this little doll?'
"She's beautiful and I love her. Her colour doesn't matter. She's a miracle baby.
"But still, what on earth happened here?"
Her husband told how their son Chisom, four, was even more confused than them by his new sister.
Ben said: "Our other daughter Dumebi is only two so she's too young to understand.
"But our boy keeps coming to look at his sister and then sits down looking puzzled.
"We're a black family. Suddenly he has a white sister."
Ben continued: "Of course, we are baffled too and want to know what's happened. But we understand life is very strange.
"All that matters is that she's healthy and that we love her.She's a proud British Nigerian."
Queen Mary's Hospital said: "Congratulations to Angela and her family on the birth of their daughter."






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A Malawi gay couple was sentenced to 14 years each in jail on Thursday after being found guilty of sodomy and indecency earlier this week, in a trial viewed as a test case for gay rights in the country.
Madonna Reacting
Photo:Madonna with her adopted daughter Mercy James at the "Raising Malawi Academy for Girls.:
An outraged Madonna ripped a Malawi judge for sentencing an engaged gay couple couple to 14 years of hard labor - based strictly on their sexual orientation.

"I am shocked and saddened by the decision made by the Malawian court, which sent two innocent men to prison," Madonna said Friday in a statement posted on her web site

According to Reuters, the couple, Steven Monjeza, 26, and 20-year-old Tiwonge Chimbalanga, were arrested after they got engaged in a traditional ceremony in late December.

"I sentence these two ... to a maximum sentence because I want us to stop Malawian sons and daughters from copying the same-sex marriages which are un-Malawian and not in our culture and religious beliefs," Chief Resident Magistrate Nyakwawa Uisiwausiwa said.

"This is the first case of its kind in Malawi ... this is the worst case of its kind," he added.

Major donors to aid-dependent Malawi have condemned what they called the abuse of human rights in the southern African nation, particularly a crackdown on gay rights, and warned that abuses could affect budget support.

Rights groups Amnesty International, on Tuesday called for the immediate and unconditional release of the couple, saying their human rights have been flagrantly violated.

Malawi gay activist, Udule Mwakasungura, said the sentence may dent the country's image.

"Malawi is a signatory to treaties that protect minority rights and this sentence is unfortunate and may affect our global standing on human rights," he said.steven-monjeza-and-tiwonge-chimbalanga1.jpg
Homosexuality in Africa has become a contentious issue in recent months after a Ugandan lawmaker proposed a bill including the death penalty for some acts, the arrest of the Malawian couple, and a police raid on a gay wedding in Kenya earlier this year.

Dozens of people packed the court to hear the sentencing. Police closed roads around the building and a nearby bank was closed as more than a thousand people descended on the court.
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The Punch

Thursday, February 4, 2010

US court convicts Nigerian couple of forced servitude

Agency reporter

A United States federal jury in Texas has convicted a Nigerian-born couple based in Arlington, Texas, Emmanuel and Ngozi Nnaji, of forcing a widowed Nigerian mother of six into servitude for nine years.

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The US Justice Department said in a statement on Wednesday that a jury found the defendants guilty of conspiracy, forced labour, document servitude, alien harbouring and false statements. Ngozi and Emmanuel Nnaji each face a maximum sentence of up to 55 years in prison.

According to the evidence at trial, the couple enticed the widow to come to the US to be their domestic servant by falsely promising a salary and support for her children, whom she was struggling to support.

The defendants procured fraudulent immigration documents, confiscated the victim's documents, harboured her in their home and compelled her to work long hours with no days off for little or no pay. They also used a scheme to isolate her and restrict her communications, withheld her documents and pay and refused her requests to return home or be paid.

Court documents also said the couple failed to provide support for the victim's six children in Nigeria, limited and monitored contacts with her family in Nigeria, isolated her from normal society in the United States, and refused to allow her to regularly attend church. According to the evidence at trial, Emmanuel sexually assaulted the victim and made her too scared to call the police.

A statement quoted Assistant Attorney-General for the Civil Rights Division, Thomas E. Perez, as saying, "Holding other human beings in servitude against their will is a violation of human rights that will not be tolerated in our free society. This prosecution demonstrates our commitment to combating human trafficking in all its forms, vindicating the rights of trafficking victims and bringing human traffickers to justice."

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Beyonce, Jay-Z named top-earning couple

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- Married U.S. recording artists Jay-Z and Beyonce Knowles are No. 1 on Forbes's list of top-earning celebrity couples.The stars reportedly took in a combined $122 million between June 2008 and June 2009.Coming in at No. 2 with $69 million are Harrison Ford and his girlfriend, Calista Flockhart, followed by Brad Pitt and his longtime partner, Angelina Jolie, at No. 3 with $55 million; Will and Jada Pinkett Smith at No. 4 with $48 million, and David and Victoria Beckham with $46 million at No. 5, the magazine said on its Web site Tuesday.Rounding out the top tier are Ellen DeGeneres and Portia De Rossi at No. 6, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson at No. 7, Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy at No. 8, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes at No. 9, and Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow at No. 10.
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Robbers kill Christ Embassy pastor, newly married couple ...Pastor’s fiancée goes into coma, hospitalized Mr. Chris Ipigbhe, a sub-pastor at one of the Christ Embassy’s satellite parish, Baruwa, at Ipaja area of Lagos, had just attended an evening service that fateful Wednesday , where he personally mounted the pulpit to preach. He never had the premonition that it was going to be his last sermon, as he was later shot dead by some dare-devil robbers shortly after. The robbers also allegedly killed no fewer than four persons, including a newly wedded couple. Daily Sun gathered that the substantive pastor was said to be away and had asked the sub-pastor to take charge. The up-coming pastor did just that and was said to be seeing off one of the church members, an elderly woman, as it was already dark, when they ran into some armed robbers, who were operating in the same compound where the woman he was seeing off lives. “She begged the robbers, who were holding sway at the gate, not to harm the pastor. She told them he was his son and that they were coming back from the church” our source said. The pastor was said to have been ordered to lie face-down while the female member was asked to raise her two hands to the sky. Unfortunately for the pastor, some of the robbers who were operating upstairs were said to have come downstairs with their loot when they saw the pastor and the woman “serving their punishment” and appeared not to be satisfied. One of the bandits, allegedly shot the pastor ripping open his stomach and his intestines gushing out. After shooting their victims, the robbers allegedly operated from room to room, carting away money and other valuables belonging to the residents of the two-storey building. The rattled woman was said to have screamed for help until her co-tenants, who were also victims of the robbery incident rushed out to help her to take the pastor to a nearby hospital. Two residents, Francis Alumhe and James Igbape narrated how the victim was referred to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), adding that he later gave up the ghost. Alumhe, who claimed to be the deceased’s bosom friend said the pastor, visited him in his office earlier in the day, adding that they were together till 2 pm that fateful day. The pastor’s fiancée, who was said to have travelled to Abuja, came back the same day her husband to-be was brutally killed by the robbers. Daily Sun gathered that when she arrived at the Airport, she made several phone calls to the pastor, unknown to her that he was in a coma as result of the gunshot. The lady, who arrived in the house to be told that the pastor was shot right in her house, as he was seeing her mother off, also became unconscious and was taken to the hospital. She was at the hospital, receiving treatment when Daily Sun visited. Meanwhile, police operatives at Ipaja were said to be investigating the tragic incident and have vowed to fish out the bandits and to bring them to book. The bodies of the victims were said to have been deposited in the mortuary for autopsy as investigations continue.
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