Crime News
Suspicion As Polish Man Cremates & Buries Late Nigerian Wife Without Informing Her Family
January 14, 2017 – Suspicion As Polish Man Cremates & Buries Late Nigerian Wife Without Informing Her Family
The family of a Nigerian woman, late Mrs. Oluwashola Atunrayo Gaska (nee Adefolalu), who allegedly died in Poland, has decried the cremation of their daughter’s body by her polish husband, Jakub (Kuba) Gaska, without their permission, thereby raising suspicion over her death.
Shola, aged 36-year-old, went to Poland to study Architecture in 2000, but later met her Polish husband there and they were married in 2010.
Based on this, the family is calling on the Polish authorities as well as the Nigerian Embassy in Poland, the Federal Government and relevant agencies to investigate the sudden and suspicious death of their daughter and circumstances surrounding the handling of her body.
However, a statement obtained by an online news portal, News Express, the deceased’s family (Adefolalu) flayed Gaska for taking the decision even after their protest following the sudden death of their sister in circumstances the family deemed as suspicious.
A cousin of the deceased, Bunmi Jasmine Omeke, in a statement, said: “The news of the death of Oluwashola Atunrayo Gaska (nee Adefolalu) fondly known as ‘Sholly’ came as a rude shock to her family and friends back home in Nigeria.
“More devastating was the effect of the report of her cremation by her husband, just a few days after her death, to the eldest sister of the deceased, Mrs. Bola ‘Salt Essien-Nelson.” According to the statement, none of the family members (immediate or extended) was allowed to pay their last respects to ‘Sholly,’ nor were they allowed to sight her body.
‘The only reason given by her husband was that he was fulfilling his wife’s ‘wishes’. Her elder sister, Essien- Nelson, the statement further read, received a phone call about her sister’s death at about 11.00am on December 28, 2016. According to the sister, this call came just days after a chatty and lively phone conversation with the deceased in faraway Poland (December 24).
During this call, there was no suggestion of any serious ailment, she said. “To date, the only proof of Sholly’s death is a scanned copy of the death certificate with the alleged cause of death being secondary anaemia and ‘tumour on the uterus.”
According to Gaska, his wife fell ill on December 28, 2016. He told her that he rushed the deceased to the hospital and had his sister look after her while he went back to work where he got the news of Sholly’s death early on Wednesday morning.
Essien-Nelson had commenced travel arrangements along with her husband to pay her last respects to her late sister when she was notified by Gaska that the late Shola had requested that her body be cremated after her death and that Mrs. Essien- Nelson should be the only one to see her body before cremation. Yet, he refused to wait for her to travel to Poland to do so.
In spite of the many pleas, he went ahead to cremate his dead wife on January 2. Not only that, he held a burial service to bury the ashes on January 7 without officially informing any member of her Nigerian family. The late Olushola’s family is suspicious of foul play in the death of their sister:
“We understand Jakub has the final say over the funeral rites for late Sholly and as shocking as the cremation request was, we were willing to honour her ‘supposed’ wishes.
What we could not understand was why her husband has deprived our family of the opportunity of paying our last respects to our daughter, sister, niece, cousin and aunt,” she said.
Ngozi Elebeonu Nwachinemere
January 14, 2017 at 3:30 AM
She most probably had terrible scars or injuries that the man wanted to hide. Its a suspicion though, but methinks he had a hand in her death.
RAPO
January 14, 2017 at 6:56 AM
YOU JUST DIE FOR NOTHING!!!! WE NEED TO ASK GOD TO GIVE US PATNER!!
Ola Amoo
January 14, 2017 at 3:31 AM
This is a case over which the Nigerian embassy in Poland,the Federal Government of Nigeria and every man and woman of goodwill, should arise to ascertain if Mrs Shola Adefolalu-Gaska had been murdered or died of natural causes…We must all stand up and fight till the end, to see that justice is done on this matter…An injustice against one of us, is an injustice against all of us…. May the soul of Shola rest eternally in peace..
Ope Lawrence
January 14, 2017 at 3:32 AM
my heart so bleeds for the family. Anyone who has gone through a similar situation knows that the circumstances surrounding a loved one’s death determine how quickly you are able to move on and not have an emotional breakdown.
The report he showed the family stated that she died of secondary anemia and had a tumor on her womb. The family did not say she had been undergoing treatments for possible cancerous growth (tumor). So, its really suspicious ( unless she was undergoing treatments and didn’t tell the sister) that she will die so suddenly from a chronic condition that usually requires treatment for a while before leading to death. There was absolutely no reason to not give the family the pleasure of saying their goodbyes. I am not familiar with polish culture, but most Caucasians will not do what he did unless there is foul play. I was looking at the angle of money being an issue, but he could have waited.
With cremation though, don’t know what could be done especially when there was no autopsy. I think the family should pursue the angle of when Shola got the diagnosis of a tumor on her uterus, tumor does lead to anemia, but the whole process still takes time. I refuse to believe that a young lady would ignore glaring symptoms she must have been experiencing or that she doesn’t do an annual physical in a European Country where they would have discovered this, only to get the diagnosis on Dec 28th, then die the next day. The family might want to see her whole medical records. They can go through the courts to do this. If she didn’t have this diagnosis till Dec. 28th, then its most likely there is another cause of death. My condolences to the family! I pray the family, especially the sister will find peace at some point because of this issue.
Emma Awode
January 14, 2017 at 3:33 AM
I sympathise with the family and I know emotions will run high. This narrative presupposes that the deceased spouse was not in the best of terms with her family. I have experienced several misunderstanding between relations of spouse when death occurs even in seemingly amiable ones. The question is it, is it distrust or undue animosity between relations of spouse or what? More caution should be observed by all parties before tying the nuptial knot. In this case, cultural difference is another issue here because cremation is alien to our culture and our reverence for the dead. Since suspicion of foul play is raised, I counsel that all allegations should be able to be substantiated with indubitable facts and evidence. May the Lord console the family, friends and acquaintances of Sholly. RIP.
Wadada
January 14, 2017 at 3:34 AM
Well it is a sad and complex story and I pray the Lord to heal this family. There are a couple of deductions one could make from this. The lady might have actually asked for her body to be cremated even as such, the husband should have showed respect to her family by allowing them see their sister, pay respect and have a closure. Time for our embassies to start asking questions and demand her postmortem report to determine the actual cause of death. Any foul play should not be left unpunished.
Metu Nyetu
January 14, 2017 at 6:20 AM
THIS MAN MUST HAVE murdered the woman. I guess there were visible scars on her corpse, which were evidences of battery and violence, which the man did not want the woman’s family to see. No Nigerian would ever request that her/his body be cremated at death.
OLA
January 15, 2017 at 12:03 AM
@METU NYETU, WE DO NOT HAVE ANY EVIDENCE AS TO IF A MURDER AS BEEN COMMITTED, WE DO NOT HAVE THE MAN’S SIDE OF THE STORY, THE LADY SUPPOSEDLY DIED AT THE HOSPITAL, I’M SURE IF THERE IS A VISIBLE MARK OR ANY EVIDENCE OF FOUL PLAY, THE HOSPITAL WOULD HAVE BEEN ALERTED. POLAND IS NOT NIGERIA…..
AND LASTLY, THERE ARE MANY NIGERIANS THAT WILL OPT FOR CREMATION, MY MOTHER HAS REQUESTED ONE AND I WANT TO BE CREMATED AS WELL, ON THE DAY WHICH I DIED IF POSSIBLE. MY REASON IF THAT I DO NOT WANT MY FAMILY TO DO ANY UNNECESSARY WASTEFUL SPENDINGS OVER MY DEAD BODY,
buzu-k
January 14, 2017 at 7:02 AM
@ola amoo which nigerian government r u talking about? is it the government that cant defend we that is in nigeria,talkless of our brothers and sisters in diaspora,is it the government that r vry serious fighting their opposition in the name of fighting corruption,or the govenmennt that hike the price of fuel,gas and kerosene without minding if their citizen can afford to buy it.which government? or did u make to mention nigeria government?
MAN D BEST
January 14, 2017 at 7:02 AM
MY HEART MELTS. I SYMPATHIZE WITH THE FAMILY.
Ss
January 14, 2017 at 8:32 AM
I knew shola we were togeher at university of lodz poland in 2000.i just cant believe it. Very sad indeed.she lost her dad last year!
Bok
January 14, 2017 at 9:52 AM
I think some of you guys dont read before jumping into concluding, from what I red here the death certificate proofs the sickness that led to her death. if the Polish guy was a Nigeria you guys would jump into conclusion of money rituals. polish is more advance in technology than Nigeria to most come up with lies.
if they were having problems they girl would have call to let her parents of relatives know.
in all the she married to the woman officially so no body should query how she bury her wife. so lets not quickly jump into conclusions.
Commenthin
January 14, 2017 at 9:51 PM
I knew her and her family. Her late Dad was a professor @ FUTMINNA. May your soul rest in perfect peace. If their was foul play, the death certificate will state it. So cool down, it’s an unfortunate lost.
Rice
January 14, 2017 at 12:40 PM
Wow, I read here dey were married…
Then if dts true,then i think he acted within his rights.
No offence though to family.
They should collect a copy of d death certificate and morn their lose according to their tradition or believe.
iron bar
January 14, 2017 at 7:05 PM
very suspicious …let our ambassador intervene on this matter immed
Big Aunty Koks
January 14, 2017 at 8:20 PM
I agree with @ Emma abode that cultural differences do contribute to the situation. Whether it was the dead woman’s request to be cremated or not, since she also named her sister as the only person to see her corpse from this side of her family, the husband should have honored that request also. Failing to so comply does make it suspicious and particularly so since the wife’s family members from all indications were financially strong and were willing to independently undertake the trip to pay their last respects to their sister. I do not understand foreign reasoning though but there are at least two sides to every story so the husband may have his own side of the tale.
Just so sad. RIP to the dead.
UZOMA
January 14, 2017 at 8:22 PM
This is a very sad story. In all honesty, this woman’s death should be investigated. @Bok, who told you the Western people don’t practice money rituals? Right here in America, both White and Black people use people to make money but not in the crude way they do it in Nigeria. What do you call it when a man or woman secretly or openly obtain insurance on the other and after a while kill that other person in order to collect the insurance payment? Is it not money ritual? Secondly, they don’t need to be having problems before he can carry out his heinous crime if his aim of marrying her was to use her to make money. I am not saying this is what happened but to correct Bok that White people carry out the worst case of crime.
Secondly, the way the husband acted by not waiting for the wife’s relatives to see her body to pay their last respect even though he knew they had obtained the necessary papers to come to Poland. Why did he hurry up to cremate her? why not bury her without cremation? This is because he knows the body will be exhumed for autopsy and the truth would come out, but, with cremation that is impossible. Like Metu said, no African nay Nigerian will request for his or her remains be cremated. Never. In my opinion, I will say this man murdered his wife.
Jilo
January 15, 2017 at 5:17 PM
Uzoma, I could have agreed that, that lady died a natural death because some white Caucasian believe funeral arrangement is more expensive, that is the reason they always opt for cremation. Also, if he had delayed the corpse for the family to see, he may have to foot the cost of funeral home bill which he may not afford. Not all white people are rich.
The reason why I couldn’t agree less to your last paragraph is
the way and manner that guy quickly cremated that girl and went to bury her Ashes. All he has to do is to handover the Ashes to the deceased sister. You cannot cremate and bury the ashes at the same time. That action alone makes me suspicious about that guy. He is hiding something for sure.
He could have sent the Ashes to her family even if it is by mailing or hold on to it for a while for her sister to pick up.
For those of you who do not know how wicked some white folks are, they can go at any length to cover their crime. What you see on TV does not portray a typical white man. They are real pretender.
OLA
January 15, 2017 at 12:04 AM
@METU NYETU, WE DO NOT HAVE ANY EVIDENCE AS TO IF A MURDER AS BEEN COMMITTED, WE DO NOT HAVE THE MAN’S SIDE OF THE STORY, THE LADY SUPPOSEDLY DIED AT THE HOSPITAL, I’M SURE IF THERE IS A VISIBLE MARK OR ANY EVIDENCE OF FOUL PLAY, THE HOSPITAL WOULD HAVE BEEN ALERTED. POLAND IS NOT NIGERIA…..
AND LASTLY, THERE ARE MANY NIGERIANS THAT WILL OPT FOR CREMATION, MY MOTHER HAS REQUESTED ONE AND I WANT TO BE CREMATED AS WELL, ON THE DAY WHICH I DIED IF POSSIBLE. MY REASON IF THAT I DO NOT WANT MY FAMILY TO DO ANY UNNECESSARY WASTEFUL SPENDINGS OVER MY DEAD BODY,
jimmy
January 16, 2017 at 7:25 AM
SO SAD! FOR THE HUSBAND TO HAVE CREMATED THE BODY WITHOUT THE INVOLVEMENT OF ANY FAMILY MEMBER OF THE DECEASED POINTS TO THE POOR STATE OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BOTH FAMILIES. DO THEY HAVE KIDS.