By THEWILL
No doubt good news is almost always trailed by congratulatory messages, especially if authenticated with verifiable proof.
So when Josephine Obiajulu Okei-Odumakin, more popularly known as Joe Odumakin, earlier Sunday announced the birth of her twins, a boy and a girl, in an American hospital, well-wishers automatically flooded her social media handles with congratulatory messages.
However, not a few have remained sceptical about the announcement.
For starters, at 55, Joe who is the President of the human rights groups, Women Arise for Change Initiative, and the Campaign for Democracy, is obviously in her menopause and many wonder how it is possible for a woman who is in her menopause stage to get pregnant.
Many sceptics are of the opinion that even if she got pregnant through Intro Vitro Fertilization while in menopause, as science has proved that to be possible, or it turns out that hers is a rare case and she isn’t yet in her menopause and got pregnant naturally, it is doubtful that she actually carried the pregnancy.
One of the things they claim casts doubts about the pregnancy is the fact that most major international airlines will not allow pregnant women to travel as they get closer to their due dates.
THEWILL’s cursory look at her social media page shows that Joe didn’t fly out of the country until about three weeks before she was ‘delivered’ of the babies like she claims.
As at July 11, she was still in Nigeria receiving well wishers who paid her condolence visits over the death of her husband who passed on from Covid19 complications in April.
Bishop Matthew Kukah, Rhoda Robinson, Executive Director of Hacey Health Initiative, Shola Owonikoko, Executive Director, Project Enable Initiative, were some of the people who paid her condolence visits on this day.
THEWILL’s further checks revealed that on August 9, she paid a visit to Pastor cum politician, Tunde Bakare of The Citadel Global Community church.
Then on September 3, she joined Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in Abuja to declare open a two-day forum on the national dialogue forum on the girl child.
She flew out of Nigeria and arrived in Atlanta on October 10 for a public lecture at Kennesaw State University. And on October 17, she moved to Dubai and then returned to America.
In her statement, she announced that she put to bed on October 27. She was clearly crisscrossing the globe one week and three days before she purportedly gave birth to twins. Ironically, she did not share any photographs.
Interestingly, in all of the appearances, observers noted keenly that her stomach wasn’t bulging with pregnancy let alone with twins.
Some argue that her small frame may have helped to mask her pregnancy even up until she put to bed. But then again, the obvious issue about international flights and pregnant women arose again.
Again, these keen observers noted that before the late Yinka Odumakin passed on from Covid19 complications, he allegedly suffered from prostate cancer.
And according to medical experts, the prostate is the target of a number of common diseases that can affect male fertility at different ages. An unhealthy prostate they pointed out, can affect spermatozoa functioning and, therefore, male fertility. And so the chances of impregnating a woman is hollow.
Another major issue pointed out is the inconsistency in Joe’s statement.
An excerpt of it says, “The birth of the twins fulfilled the wishes of the late Odumakin to have another baby to be named after him.
“It was gathered that Yinka never got to hear the news about his wife’s pregnancy before he died.
“He had, however, prophetically left words concerning what the baby or babies should be called if his wishes materialised.”
The fact that the late activist didn’t know that his wife was pregnant, at least three clear months before he died, but ‘prophetically’ left names for the babies, speaks volumes about her statement.
How realistically can it be that one half of a couple won’t know they are expecting a child at most, one week after a pregnancy result, assuming intercourse took place and the carrier of the pregnancy isn’t past menopause?
These and many more have caused many to wonder if she actually did give birth to the twins or she had them via a surrogate.
After all, bringing a child into the world should be a thing of joy regardless of the means through which the child came.
Calls by THEWILL to Joe’s direct number to clarify these issues went unanswered just as direct messages to her social media handle were not responded to as at the time of publishing this piece.
The above story originally appeared in THEWILL, https://thewillnigeria.com/news/the-mystery-of-odumakins-posthumous-twins/