Polish Husband Cremates Nigerian Wife’s Body after She Dies | Family Begs FG to Intervene

The heart broken family of a Nigerian lady, Oluwashola Gaska (nee Adefolalu) believed to have been killed in Krakow, Poland, and subsequently cremated by her Polish husband, identified as Jakub Gaska, is appealing to the Federal Government of Nigeria and Polish authorities to intervene in the case.

In a telephone conversation with Punch, Abimbola Essien-Nelson exposed her grief despite her attempt to conceal it, saying she has been heartbroken following the suspicious death of her younger sister in Poland and the cremation of her remains by her husband despite the family’s objection.

”My sister, Sholly, was born on September 25, 1980. She was such a beautiful baby and my parents, Professor and Mrs. Daniel Oladele Adefolalu, named her Oluwashola Atunrayo Adefolalu. Atunrayo means ‘My joy has been restored’ and that is exactly how my mom felt at the birth of my sister. About two years before Sholly was born, my mom had almost lost her life giving birth to a still born baby. So, when Sholly was born, the whole family was super excited and thankful to God. I was 12 and my brother, Tokunbo, was 10 then and Sholly was our pride and joy.  She was the object of everybody’s adoration.

Sadly, our mother passed away in 1986 when Sholly was just five years old and so, at the age of 17, I basically became her mother. Oh, ours was an extraordinary sister bond. I loved my sister with all my heart and she loved me back.  Even as a grown up 36-year-old woman, she still called me her ‘sistermom’ and I called her my ‘aburochild.’ I am a blogger and over the years I have shared my feelings about my sister on my blog.

I remember my last phone call with her on December 24, 2016. She was laughing as usual as we talked. She always said, ‘Life is an orchestra; play it loud’ and she lived by it.’ She was always smiling or laughing. She was always positive about life no matter what. She was loving and kind; creative and artsy. Sholly moved to Poland to go to university in 2000. She studied Architecture and Interior Design. After her studies, she decided to give life in Poland a shot and the rest is history. She met Jakub (Kuba) Gaska, fell in love and got married in 2010.”

Information gathered also revealed that Shola loved to take photos and ran a small photography business in Poland apart from her day job of teaching English as a foreign language.

Being a totally detribalised Nigerian, she explained that her late father did not discriminate based on tribe or nationality when Shola decided to marry a Polish man.

She continues:

”He had no issues with her marrying Gaska. He only wished she had made him visit Nigeria first to meet the family.  In the end, he put her happiness first and gave his consent. I traveled to Poland for the wedding back then in August 2010.

Like my sister, Gaska was the last born of three children. He was also much younger than his two older sisters and therefore a mama’s boy if you like. I believe these similarities were initially what made them click. To me, they had a great relationship and there was nothing to suggest that he would behave the way he has done.”

Essien-Nelson also revealed that before her sister’s death, she constantly received reports from her that there was friction in the marriage due to the interfering stance of her mother-in-law.

”In the early years of the marriage, we used to joke about it and I would ask her to calm down, that the mother would eventually understand that her son was now married and step back. Sadly, that did not happen and as they lived in the same home. One can imagine her frustration. Towards the end of 2016, she was so happy because they had started building their own house and she was finally going to be able to live with her husband alone for the first time since they got married.

I was at work that day and I will never forget that moment. At about 11.28am on Wednesday, December 28, 2016, I received a telephone call from Kuba. I remember looking at my phone surprised to see his number. I thought to myself maybe Sholly is pregnant but feeling poorly with it and Kuba is calling me to give me the good news. How wrong I was! ‘There’s been an accident, Shola was unconscious and has died.’ Those were his words. I screamed and fell to the ground. The office was spinning; my world had just crashed.  I was still crying and asking him to explain what he had just said when the telephone was disconnected.

He called back and this time he said that Shola had been feeling sick on Tuesday evening, and that he and his sister had taken her to the hospital. Tests were said to have been conducted which showed she had anaemia and low haemoglobin level. She was admitted and treated but eventually passed away at about 3am on Wednesday, December 28, 2016.  It just does not make any sense. How do you die from anaemia in a hospital? I spoke to my sister on December 24 and there was nothing to suggest that would be the last time. And till today, we are not even sure of what really killed her. Apart from speaking with my sister on December 24, I also chatted with her on Facebook on December 26 and 27. She was not sick,’’ she insisted.

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In addition, she noted that Gaska increased the pain the Adefolalus felt after losing their daughter in an inexplicable circumstance when he announced that he was going to cremate her corpse as they had both agreed.

”One wonders what kind of discussion they were having for such a topic to come up. We asked him to suspend all his plans until my family and I got there in early January 2017.  We also made it clear to him that because of the sudden nature of her death, we wanted to see her. We sent several sets of representatives from the Nigerian community to him in this regard but he refused to allow anyone have access to the corpse. He said Shola told him that I was the only one to be allowed to see her body. Again, this is just bizarre. What kind of discussions where they having?

When it became clear that Kuba had no plans of waiting for my husband and I to get to Poland, we purchased tickets for my aunty and two of my cousins to fly in from Ireland to participate in the burial arrangements. We asked him to suspend all arrangements for the burial/cremation until their arrival but he defiantly proceeded to cremate the remains a day before their arrival. He said ‘the cremation will proceed as planned and there is nothing anyone can do about it,” she added.

Sadly, Gaska defiantly sent the remains of Shola for cremation on January 2, 2017 without he or any members of his family in attendance.

According to the Adefolalus, Gaska also later interred the ashes on his birthday, January 7, 2017, by holding a burial without informing the deceased’s family members.

In her plea for justice, Essien-Nelson has also petitioned the Nigerian government and the Polish authorities to step into the case, stating the position of the family at a press conference in Lagos on Wednesday.

Photo credit: Punch