Eunice Elisha: “We lack courage to tell Baba she’s been murdered” – family
Pa Ayodele Akun has been ill for about two months.
Around 5:30am last Saturday (July 9), his daughter who promised to buy him a car, was killed while preaching in Abuja.
Her name is Eunice Elisha, 42. She’s a member of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) where her husband, Olawale Elisha, pastors.
Akun, 72, thinks Eunice is still alive. The family say, for the sake of Baba’s health and for the lack of courage on their own part, things should remain as they were before Baba took ill: Eunice is alive.
“We went to see Baba Akun today,” Apata Emmanuel, a nephew to Eunice, told NewsroomNG on Thursday.
“He was happy to see us. I was with my brother Prophet Ayodele. He thank God Baba is recovering from sickness.
“Baba cracked jokes with me and I forced myself to laugh because we don’t have the courage to tell him that his daughter has being slaughtered,” Apata said.
When Eunice’s mother was told her daughter is no more, she took ill and had to be hospitalised at the General Hospital, Ilawe-Ekiti.
Apata said the family is afraid something worse could happen to Baba Akun if the first news he heard after recovering from illness is the death of his beloved daughter.
“We simply can’t tell him now because although his condition has improved greatly, he’s still not very strong,” Apata told our correspondent.
“News of Eunice’s death would be too great a shock. It could turn the treatment Baba has been receiving all along to a waste of money, effort and time,” he said.
When asked whether Pa Akun would get the sad news before Eunice is buried, Apata said the family is in no hurry.
“Actually, we have not even fixed the date,” he said.
“The family has been in touch with Eunice’s husband and we have been talking about how the burial will go. We can’t even fix the date yet because the police say they want to examine Eunice’s body in relation to their investigation on her murder. So we want to give the police ample time to do their job.
“We are thinking about holding the wake-keep in Lagos, and the final burial in Abuja where Eunice’s husband and children live,” he said.
We couldn’t reach the police to confirm Apata’s comment on the authorities asking for time to examine Eunice’s body.
But the police had said six people were arrested in connection to the killing, and had vowed to bring Eunice’s killers to justice.
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has also promised not to rest until Eunice’s killers are brought to book.
Meanwhile, we don’t know when Baba Akun will be let in on these..
