Post by Elewa Kehinde Ruth (@Kennyroyal_6)

I went to INEC office in Surulere to collect my PVC. I took number 14. I waited 47 minutes.

The officer scanned my NIN slip. He looked at the screen. He looked at me. He called his supervisor.

The supervisor pointed at the monitor. The screen said: VOTER STATUS: DECEASED. NAME: CHINWE ADEBAYO. DATE MARKED: 03/08/2026.

I told him there is a mistake. I am standing here. I am breathing.

He printed the record. It showed my date of death as 15/03/2025. Cause: cardiac arrest. Place of death: LUTH. Informant: MR. CHUKWUDI ADEBAYO (HUSBAND). The record was updated at the National Population Commission on 22/03/2025.

My husband Chukwudi and I have been married for six years. He cooks for me every Sunday. He was with me on March 15, 2025. We went to his cousin's wedding in Festac. I have pictures. I wore peach lace.

The INEC officer said he cannot give me a PVC because dead people do not vote. He advised me to go to NPC to correct the record.

I drove to NPC office at Yaba. I paid N5,000 for a certified true copy of the death certificate. The certificate is real. It has a stamp. It has my name, my date of birth, my NIN. It has Chukwudi's signature as the person who reported the death. It has a doctor's name I do not know.

The clerk at NPC said, "Madam, this certificate was used to process benefits. See the stamp here." There was a stamp from my teachers' cooperative society, dated 10/04/2025. "CLAIM PROCESSED – NEXT OF KIN PAID."

I am a member of the Lagos State Teachers Cooperative. We contribute N5,000 monthly for life insurance. The benefit for death is N2.5 million to next of kin.

I called the cooperative secretary from the NPC car park. I asked if a claim was paid for me. She was quiet. Then she said, "Aunty Chinwe, sorry o. Your husband brought the death certificate last year April. He cried. We paid him N2.5 million. He said he needed it for the children's school fees."

We do not have children.

I drove home. Chukwudi was in the sitting room watching football. He saw my face and muted the TV.

I placed the death certificate on the center table. I placed the NPC printout next to it. I placed my PVC collection slip next to that.

He did not pick them up. He rubbed his palms together.

He said, "Chinwe, I can explain."

He explained.

In March 2025, his mother pressured him to marry a second wife from the village because I had not given him a child after five years. The girl's family asked for N2 million bride price. He did not have it. He remembered my cooperative insurance. He went to a hospital in Mushin with a friend who works in records. They created a death certificate. He took it to the cooperative. They paid him in April.

He used N1.8 million for the bride price. He used N700,000 to rent a small flat in Mowe for the new wife. Her name is Ifeoma. She is 23. She is currently pregnant.

He said he did not mean to kill me on paper permanently. He said he planned to "resurrect" me later after he had settled. He said the INEC record updated automatically from NPC, he did not know.

I asked him, "Chukwudi, for 18 months I have been dead, and you have been collecting my salary?"

He said no. He said only the insurance.

I logged into my pension portal from my phone. My next of kin is still him. My status is active. I logged into my cooperative portal. My status is "DECEASED – ACCOUNT CLOSED."

I have been contributing N5,000 every month since April 2025 to a cooperative that thinks I am dead. The deductions still leave my salary. Where is the money going?

He did not answer.

My phone rang. It was an unknown number. A woman's voice. "Good afternoon, is this Mrs. Adebayo? This is Ifeoma, your co-wife. Chukwudi said you know now. Please, I am begging you, don't report him. I am seven months pregnant."

Co-wife.

I am sitting in my car outside our house now. It is 4:22 PM. Chukwudi is inside packing a small bag. He says he will go to the village to "correct the mistake." Ifeoma is still on the phone, crying. The NPC certificate is on my passenger seat. The INEC printout says I died on March 15, 2025.

I have not died. I am 33 years old. I have a job. I have a PVC I cannot collect. I have a husband who buried me on paper to marry another woman.

The NPC officer told me I need a court order, a newspaper publication, and a letter from my husband admitting fraud to reverse a death record.

My husband is the fraud.

Should I drive straight to the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja right now to file a suit to declare myself alive and have Chukwudi arrested for forgery, or should I go to the cooperative office first to collect the CCTV footage of him collecting my N2.5 million death benefit so I have evidence before he runs?
Advise her

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