Folashade Sariyu speaks with TOFARATI IGE about the alleged harassment from her estranged husband, Lateef Lawal, and his new wife and actress, Liz Anjorin
What is your relationship with Lateef Lawal, Liz Anjorin’s husband?
He is married to me. We had both a traditional and Muslim wedding, popularly known as Nikkai, in 2017 at my father’s house in Ota, Ogun State. When I met him, he did not have any other wife in his house. He told me he had issues with the two wives (he had married earlier). I then told him that if he wanted me to marry him, he should go back to his wives (and settle their issues). And, he promised to do that. Before I met him, I already had two children, though their father is late.
As our relationship went on, I got pregnant and gave birth to our first child together, called Lateefa on May 30, 2017. I gave birth to the second child, Kadijat, on March 5, 2020, and we did not have any fight.
As a matter of fact, my senior wives and I usually talked, and we related well, to the extent that their children usually visited me and my kids too visited them.
How and when did he get married to Liz?
My husband just left the house one day, and told me he was going to work. For about three days after leaving the house, he usually called me and said he was at work. However, I was shocked when I read online that he got married to an actress, Liz Anjorin. At that time, I was nursing a three-months-old, so I wasn’t conversant with happenings online. People just started calling me, and told me to check Gistlover (a blog) that it reported the news of Lateef’s wedding to Liz. I even told them that it could not be my husband. When I finally checked it, I realised that he was the one, so I started calling him but he did not take my calls. I even sent his friends to him all to no avail. It was after eight months that I was able to get through to him. Meanwhile, he only responded because I had said I was fed up with the whole issue and would expose him online, because I did not want to die in silence. I was the only one taking care of the children, yet I would go online and be seeing their father with a wealthy actress, eating and spending lavishly. My children are not even going to school anymore, because I could not afford the fees.
Meanwhile, in the house we were residing, the landlord had given me a quit notice, because I was not paying the rent, yet he was also seeing my husband online with a rich person, while we were not paying the rent.
After that, people started speaking to him, and he started calling me once in a while. He said he would give me money to start up a business; but he eventually did not fulfill his promise.
What did you do at that point?
When there was no one to support me, I went online to solicit for help, and some people came to my aid. Since then, Liz started making trouble with me, claiming that I was lying against her husband. She claimed that her husband did not know me, and that if anyone was claiming to have children for her husband, that person should have a DNA test. She then started tormenting me with the police. She even threatened to kill me.
What did the police do when they got to your house?
The policemen seized my phone, claiming there was evidence on it that I sent hired assassins to kill Lati. They also claimed that I was blackmailing Liz. For someone like me that does not even have money to eat; I wonder where I would have got money to hire assassins. Meanwhile, Liz was the one threatening me, that she would kill me, and pay a senior lawyer N10m to bury the case.
There is nothing those policemen did not do to me. They have beaten me. Even when I was on my menstrual period, they were touching my private part. It was even Liz’s vehicle they brought to arrest me.
While on the way, the policemen threatened to kill me, and that there was nothing the people supporting me would do.
Do you have evidence of Liz threatening to kill you?
Yes, I have evidence of where she said my children and I will die. She has actually been saying that for the past two years. The policemen she is using also said that they would not leave me alone until I was dead.
They later called me and they said they want to unblock my account on the instruction of their boss. They said their boss had realised that Liz was not a good person. Meanwhile, I had no idea that they actually planned to arrest me.
What offences were you charged with?
I was accused of cyberstalking, blackmail and threat to life.
What sort of help are you seeking for at this point?
The harassment by the police is too much. I am being threatened every day by the police, and I don’t have peace of mind.
My lawyer will petition all the police officers (involved in the case) for the harassment and harm they have caused me. The police should leave me alone. I had won a case on this same issue before, and my lawyer was Wahab Shittu. He wrote a petition to the Commissioner of Police, and I have evidence of that with me.
The court asked him (Lateef) to take responsibility for the children, and he requested for a DNA test to be conducted to determine the true paternity of the children. I initially disagreed because I have no doubt that he is their father, but I later accepted. A date was given for the test to be conducted, but he did not show up. He claimed that the money was too much, and that he was no longer interested in the test. Personally, I want the test to be done, so that they can stop calling his two daughters bastards.
However, the police then blocked my account because the test was not done. Meanwhile, I had said I was ready for the test, but the man was not forthcoming.
Was Liz Anjorin there when they arrested you?
No, she was not there, but Lateef was there. They treated me like a common criminal. There was a day I had an accident on my way there and sustained an injury on my leg; yet, they insisted that I must still report at the station in that state. I eventually went there with an intravenous drip, yet the police still accused me of trying to run away. They told me to sit on the floor, and they kept slapping and beating me.
While all this was happening, did you ever threaten Liz or Lateef?
I never did that. If she has any proof of that, she should present it.
Liz also claimed that you forged Lateef’s death certificate. Is that true?
How is it possible to fake the death certificate of a man that is alive, and we are in court? What would I want to use his death certificate for?
He has left me for Liz, and he lives with her. I have no reason to fake his death.
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