70 year old herbalist with 57 wives: sacks 8

NSUKKA—A 70 year old herbalist, Simon
Odo Okoro a.k.a Onuwa, has divorced his 57
wives. The herbalist who vowed not to marry
again has accused some of his children of
allegedly sleeping with some of them.
However, Onuwa, who calls himself King of
Satan broke his vow not marry again by
quickly remarrying one of the youngest of
his divorced wives, an 18 year old Chidinma.
Onuwa said that the new wife whom she
divorced pleaded with him to marry her so
that she could take care of him as an old
man.
“The girl who lured me to marry her
returned from the United States. She told me
to marry her so that she would take care of
me as an old man. She is from Enugu State.
However, a month after the marriage was
consummated, she told me to sack the
youngest one, Chidinma and I became
furious with her because that was not why I
married her. I beat her and she left,” he
said.
Onuwa with one of his daughters
Criminal activities
On the allegation that some of his children
(names withheld) not only slept with some of
his wives but planned to kill him, he said
that he would disown any of his sons
involved in criminal activities.”
Onuwa married the 57th wife in November
2015 and vowed not to marry again, having
had a fair share of women in his life.
Chidinma was married from Okutu, in
Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu
State. Odo, also known variously as Onuwa,
King Solomon of Africa or King of Satan had
altogether been married to 69 women but
some of them had earlier died. Augustina
Odo (nee Asogwa) and Virginia, nee Mogbo
from Oraifite were among the dead ones.
However, Odo spoke in an interview with the
South East Voice at his palatial home at Aji,
Enugu Ezike in Igboeze North Local
Government Area of Enugu State. Onuwa
who was armed with an Onward note book
where names of his wives and over 200
children were listed according to their dates
of birth said that his first son, Emeka was
born on December 15, 1969. “I was born in
1947 on the day they had an eclipse of the
sun and the moon. There was darkness in the
afternoon on the day I was born. I was the
only son of my parents. I was baptised as a
Christian in the Catholic Church and even
became a mass servant under Rev Father
Desmond McGlade. I, however, became a
herbalist because of circumstances beyond
my control.
As I said, I was the only son of my parents
but because some of his relations wanted to
take over his landed property, they poisoned
me. I contracted tuberculosis and had to be
treated for years. At a point, I was even
unable to walk for about five years because I
became lame. I ran to Ondo State in the
South West, where I trained to become a
herbalist at the age of 15, before returning
to the village. I married 15 wives when my
father was alive and the situation prolonged
his life. He died in 1992 at the ripe old age
of over 90 years. My first son has seven
children and four grandchildren. Any of my
children who chooses to become a Christian
is free to do so, provided he/she must
become a Catholic. I don’t like the
Pentecostal churches.”
On feeding of his large family, Onuwa said,
“People think that I feed many of them but
this is not true. Most of my children are
grown up. The boys among them usually
marry and go to their own houses just like
the girls who marry and follow their
husbands to their places. However, my wives
cook food for the whole family in turns. For
example, if it is the turn of Ada or Omada to
cook, she would invite five of her colleagues
to assist her in cooking. One woman cooks
for everybody in the house at a time but my
other wives would always assist such a
person.”
Asked if any of his sons has taken after him
as a herbalist, he said, “I will not encourage
them to do so. I don’t want my sons to take
after me because some of them will do bad
things with my medicine. As a herbalist, I
have never killed anybody or thought of evil
against anybody but I do not trust that my
children would be upright like me. That is
why I will not encourage them to inherit my
medicine but I may bequeath them to some
of my younger children, not the old, greedy
ones.”
Meanwhile, it was learnt that although
Onuwa abhorred seeing his children attend
churches other than the Catholic Church,
seven of them were ordained pastors of the
Lord’s Chosen Church. Hitherto, some of
them attended Catholic and Anglican
churches while many of them took after
their father in his business.