August 26, (THEWILL) – Okechukwu Okereke, husband of late Nollywood actress, Cynthia Okereke, has revealed that his family is struggling to raise money to bury her.
Cynthia died in July, one year after she was kidnapped by unknown men alongside her colleague, Clemson Cornel.
In a chat with Vanguard Newspaper, Okechukwu expressed dismay over the failure of the Actors Guild of Nigeria to support his family.
According to him, he and his son are the only ones organising his wife’s burial arrangements.
He emphasised that his family needs financial assistance so that they can give her a fitting burial.
Okechukwu also revealed that his wife died as a result of the shock she experienced when she was abducted in 2022.
He also disclosed that she had been in and out of the hospital since her abduction and eventual release before her unfortunate death.
“After her release, trauma set in. She developed a leg problem because they tied her legs.
“When she was released from the kidnappers’ den, she had severe pain and we rushed her to the orthopaedic hospital where it was discovered that the pain relief drugs she took while in the kidnappers’ den had affected her tummy.
“From there, we rushed her again to a private hospital where she underwent the first surgery and waited for the second one to be carried out on her before her doctors discovered that it had affected her heart.
“At that point, we moved her to a specialist hospital in Owerri, where she was placed on life support. And on Tuesday, July 11, she gave up the ghost, after she had spent about four months at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu,” Okechukwu stated.
He issued an appeal to his late wife’s friends, colleagues, and fans, urging them to come together and support his family to ensure a dignified funeral ceremony for the departed actress.
Also speaking about the ransom paid to his wife’s kidnappers, Okechukwu explained that they had borrowed the sum of N3.5 million, which they are still repaying to secure the release of both his wife and actor Cornel.
He stated that the funds raised by the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) for that purpose were not handed over to the affected families up till now.
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