More than two years after Fidelis Osaghae died under disputed circumstances, conflicting forensic findings have left his widow, Esther, searching for answers and waiting for justice for the husband who left home promising to return. Ayodeji Ake writes.
More than two years after Fidelis Osaghae stepped out of his home in the early hours of July 29, 2024, telling his young wife he would return shortly, the circumstances of his death remain unresolved.
The 33-year-old restaurant manager never came back. Instead, Esther received a telephone call directing her to a hospital in Afashio, Edo State. She could not leave immediately. Their daughter was barely two months old, and she had no one to leave the baby with. So, she sent her elder sister, Mrs. Mabel Akhagbemhe to find out what had happened.
What Mabel encountered at the hospital marked the beginning of a two-year search for answers, a search that would involve the police, multiple autopsy examinations, conflicting toxicology reports, petitions, civil society organisations’ demands for answers and allegations of threats.
The case drew significant media attention, especially after competing forensic findings emerged. Yet as the months passed and public interest moved elsewhere, Esther remained with the same questions that confronted her on the morning her husband disappeared: How did he die? What happened in the hours after he left home?
And why have the findings surrounding his death failed to produce a clear explanation?
Speaking with THISDAY, Esther noted that she is still waiting for justice for the husband she lost barely days before their first wedding anniversary.
“I really can’t wait to witness when the major suspect, now defendant in the suspicious death of my husband, Valentine Oyemike, and co-suspected perpetrators will be brought to justice. I don’t want anyone that has a hand in my husband’s death to escape this at all.”
The allegations against Oyemike, Nneoma and other individuals remains a matter for due process and the courts. The suspects are entitled to the presumption of innocence unless and until proven guilty.
At the centre of the case, though, are two toxicology examinations that produced sharply different results. The first, dated November 15, 2024, reported the presence of chlorpyrifos, an organophosphorus pesticide, in samples taken from Osaghae’s body.
The second, dated April 22, 2025, reported no organophosphorus or carbamate insecticides, including chlorpyrifos, but detected tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive compound in cannabis.
For Esther, the contradiction has made an already painful event even more suspicious and more difficult.
“Two years now,” she said. “We are just living the day as it comes.”
The husband who promised to return.
Osaghae’s death came at a moment when Esther said their young family was preparing to celebrate its
first wedding anniversary. Their anniversary was scheduled for August 5, 2024. His death occurred on July 29, barely a week before the celebration. Their anniversary clothes were already with their tailor. “His own was with his tailor. Till now, the clothes are still with them,” Esther said. The memory remains especially painful because nothing in the family’s plans suggested that their lives were about to change forever.
Osaghae had returned from work at about 2:30 a.m. He worked as a manager at ValChi Fast Food and Restaurant in Auchi, where, according to his wife, Oyemike was his employer.
“He came home around 2:30 a.m. He didn’t bring our car back home but came with a bike man which he left outside and went back to work at that dark hour of the night.
When he came in, I just saw money in his pocket and he left already,”
Esther recalled.
According to her, Osaghae said he had been asked to return to the workplace.
“He told me that he was coming back. He even told me that I should not lock the door.” With their two-month-old baby beside her, Esther went back to sleep. She expected her husband to return within an hour. He never did. When she woke up and realised he was not beside her, she began calling his phone.
“He was someone that if he sees my call, no matter how busy he is, he is going to pick that up,” she stated. But after many call attempts, he was not answering, and my anxiety set in.”
The widow contacted the supervisor on duty, identified as Tracey. After many calls to her as well, she eventually picked and said “everything was under control,” Esther told THISDAY.
The statement confused her. “What was under control?” she wondered. She continued calling, but the supervisor stopped answering. Then, around 6 a.m., another call came. This time, from Valentine Oyemike himself.
She was told to come to a hospital in Afashio, which is 10-15 kilometres away from Auchi where the incident occurred.
Esther wanted to go immediately, but her sister insisted on going in her place because of the baby.
“I saw the deceased body.” Mabel, Esther’s elder sister, recalled the morning as something far more serious than an ordinary hospital emergency. She thought she was going to see a sick man. She thought something had happened to Osaghae at work.
“I thought he was sick. Maybe something happened at work. Maybe sickness or something,” she said.
She went to the hospital. There, she said, she was directed towards Osaghae’s employer. According to Mabel, the encounter with Oyemike immediately raised questions.
“The next thing, he just opened his Tundra vehicle. I even thought he wanted to go and bring something or so. The next thing is, I saw the deceased body. “I asked questions upon questions. He didn’t answer,” she exclusively told THISDAY.
According to her, the hospital did not accept the body. People around the hospital were reportedly asking why a dead man had been brought there.
Eventually, the body was taken to a mortuary. For Mabel, the discovery of injuries on Osaghae’s body deepened the mystery. At the mortuary, she said an attendant drew her attention to a dark patch on his chest.
“He said, ‘see this injury. See this mark. See this swelling.’ he said, ‘Madam, this cannot be ordinary.’
Mabel said she had already noticed that Osaghae’s clothes appeared torn and that there were bruises. The mortuary attendant’s observation prompted the family to photograph some of the findings and report the matter to the police at the Auchi Division.
However, she stated that the family’s experience at the police station left them even more shocked.
Mabel said the family went to the police expecting an investigation. Instead, she claimed, the response suggested that a conclusion had already been reached. “By the time we got there, it was like a case that had not gotten there was already concluded,” she told THISDAY. She recalled meeting the Divisional Police Officer ( DPO).
According to her, the officer began discussing the possibility that Osaghae had committed suicide.
The DPO was the one explaining on behalf of the suspect.
“I didn’t understand what is happening here. They’ve already concluded the case a suicide case,” she stated.
The family disputed that conclusion and alleged that the circumstances surrounding Osaghae’s death were not sufficiently investigated before the suicide theory emerged.
Then, the next drama happened. Osaghae’s wife, Esther, said she was also confronted with a distracting allegation concerning the paternity of her daughter.
She alleged that the police told her that the suspect, Valentine Oyemike “intended to write a petition” against her, alleging that her husband was not the biological father of their child.
For Esther, the allegation was devastating. She said she immediately dismissed that and offered to undergo any forensic examination necessary to establish the child’s paternity, even as she believed this was a deflection from the real, tragic issue.
That claim has not been independently established. Nonetheless, “I am ready because my husband is the father of my child,” she said.
A forensic trail begins
As questions accumulated, the family sought assistance from civil society organisations. Petitions were subsequently made to the Inspector General of Police. The organisations called for a fresh and independent investigation, including forensic examination of relevant phones, communications and CCTV footage, according to the petitions. The family also pushed for an autopsy. That decision would produce findings that would later become central to the case.
What the first autopsy found
According to documents made available to THISDAY, a post-mortem examination conducted on October 3, 2024, at Edo State University Teaching Hospital recorded several findings.
The report described an embalmed young adult male and documented cyanosis, a bluish discolouration associated with reduced oxygenation. It also recorded dark patches on the chest, bruising on the right thigh and other findings. Of particular interest was a sub-galeal haematoma, a collection of blood beneath the scalp.
The report placed it in the fronto-parietal region and measured it at approximately 8cm by 6cm. The lungs were described as congested and oedematous, with frothy fluid discharge. Histological examination reportedly showed severe pulmonary oedema and alveolar haemorrhage.
The stomach contained semi-solid food matter, described as resembling semovita and vegetables, with a volatile and pungent odour. The stomach wall was described as friable and darkish, with greyish material attached to the mucosal surface.
The report’s summary included corrosive gastritis, acute lung injury, cyanosis and the sub-galeal haematoma.
The pathologists eventually listed asphyxiation, respiratory failure and chemical organophosphorus poisoning in the cause-of-death findings. The first toxicology report, issued on November 15, 2024, appeared to reinforce the poisoning theory. It reported the presence of chlorpyrifos and its metabolites in samples taken from Osaghae. The reported concentrations included 97.8 µg/mL in stomach contents, alongside lower concentrations in other samples. The report also detected ethyl alcohol. It stated that the concentrations of chlorpyrifos and its metabolites was sufficient to cause fatality.
For the family, the evidence appeared to provide a sabotage suspicion. A follow-up examination produced a different picture.
The toxicology report that changed everything
The second toxicology examination, reported on April 22, 2025, was conducted by Bode Technology and Forensics Limited on samples submitted from the National Hospital, Abuja. The laboratory examined samples from the liver, kidney, lungs and tongue scrapings. It found no organophosphorus or carbamate insecticides. It also reported negative results for several other categories of poisons, including chlorinated hydrocarbons, rodenticides, metallic poisons and
cyanide. The acetylcholinesterase inhibition test, relevant in assessing exposure to organophosphorus pesticides, was also reported as negative for organophosphorus pesticides. But the laboratory detected THC.
The report recorded THC concentrations in the tested tissue samples and described the detected concentration as being within a toxic level. However, the report did not simply declare cannabis the definitive cause of death. It discussed potential toxic effects, including loss of consciousness and possible fatal consequences under certain circumstances.
The second toxicology report does not, by itself, establish homicide. What it does is create a major forensic contradiction. One report identified chlorpyrifos. The later report found no organophosphorus pesticide but detected THC.
The question became unavoidable: How could samples associated with the same deceased person produce such different toxicological results?
A second examination created yet another layer of uncertainty. A medical practitioner’s report dated April 2025 described the body as embalmed but decomposed, with extensive organ decomposition and mould deposition.
It recorded a subcutaneous haematoma in the left anterior chest wall. But some findings from the first autopsy were not replicated. The second examination did not report the same sub-galeal haematoma identified in the first autopsy. That difference does not automatically prove that either examination was false. Decomposition, embalming, post-mortem handling, timing and differences in examination techniques can affect findings.
What it does demonstrate is the need for competent forensic interpretation and a transparent explanation of the discrepancies. For the family, however, the conflicting findings have deepened rather than resolved their concerns.
The widow who had to leave home
While the forensic battle continued, Esther said she and her daughter no longer felt safe in Auchi. She alleged that the family experienced threats and intimidation after they began demanding answers. She said an organisation supporting the family eventually helped move them from Auchi to Abuja.
“We were being threatened from different angles, planting the “paternity” rumours to incite sacrilege consequences against me. The NGO moved us to safety because that place was no longer safe for us,” she said.
Mabel also recalled what she described as frightening incidents.
She said people appeared to trail them and that there were occasions when strangers were seen around the family’s residence.
She recalled neighbours reporting strange activity around the house and dogs barking at night.
“We have already seen threats. So, there was a reason for us to leave that town,” she said.
The claims of threats have not been independently verified for this report, but they form part of the family’s account of what happened after they began seeking answers. For Esther, the consequences have gone beyond grief. She is now trying to support herself and her daughter.
A makeup artist who also does lashes, she said she has begun taking on jobs to survive. “We are just living the day as it comes,” she said. She acknowledged the financial and other support provided by those assisting the family, but said she still has to find ways to provide for her child.
Perhaps the most painful part of the story is that Osaghae’s remains have not brought the family closure. According to the family, his remains are still at the mortuary as the investigative process continues. For Esther, every passing month represents another period without the answer she has sought since that morning in July 2024.
She remembers the man who returned home at 2:30 a.m., the father of her two-month-old daughter and the husband preparing to celebrate his first wedding anniversary with her. She remembers the clothes still waiting at the tailor.
She remembers being told that something had happened. And she remembers not being able to go to the hospital herself because she was caring for their baby. What remains is the question of how a man who left his house saying he would return shortly ended up dead.
The Osaghae case has now moved far beyond the circumstances of one death. It raises questions about the handling of suspicious deaths, preservation of forensic evidence, chain of custody, police investigation and the ability of the justice system to reconcile conflicting expert findings. It also raises a fundamental question about the passage of time. A case can dominate headlines when new evidence emerges and then disappear from public attention as another news cycle takes over.
And the child who lost her father continues to grow up without him. The conflicting forensic findings make the need for a transparent investigation even more pressing.
If Osaghae died by suicide, the circumstances should be established through credible evidence. If poisoning caused his death, investigators must determine how the substance entered his body and the circumstances surrounding it. If the toxicology evidence was compromised, the chain of custody should reveal how. If he was assaulted, investigators should determine the nature, timing and significance of the injuries.
And if another person or persons caused his death, the justice system must identify those responsible and hold them accountable in accordance with the law.
For Esther, however, she wants to know what happened to her husband. She wants her daughter to know what happened to her father. And after more than two years of forensic contradictions and petitions, she wants the case to move beyond documents and promises.