In this interview with Saturday Tribune, Olajumoke’s mother-in-law, Mrs Janet Orisagunna, also talks about her daughter-in-law’s fame. See excerpts below:
How did you receive the news of Olajumoke’s fortune with her pictures in newspapers and on social media?
She is my son’s wife but I treat her as my own daughter. I felt very happy when I heard the good news.
Since your son, Sunday, married Olajumoke, how would you describe her attitude?
She has always exhibited a good character. My son met and impregnated
her when she was learning hairdressing. My son had phoned me from Lagos
and said that if I heard that he impregnated a girl, it was true and he
was ready to marry her. In the evening of that day, somebody brought
Jumoke and mentioned Sunday as the one who put her in the family way. I
said there was no problem and asked her to come and stay with me.
Some
weeks later, she brought her luggage and began living with me here. I
soon went to meet her parents and told them that we had accepted her as
our wife and daughter. Since she gave birth, I have been taking care of
her. Sometime last year, she told me that she was going to Lagos to work
and I gave her my blessing. She dropped her firstborn for her mother
but when the child was sick, my in-law brought her to me, saying that
she said he wanted to see her father (Sunday), who was then in Osogbo,
where he was learning to make aluminium doors and windows. Sunday came
to Iree for the weekend and we took the child to the hospital and
thereafter, she was okay. But when Jumoke heard that her child was sick,
she said she wanted to come and take her to Lagos and I said there was
no need for that. Not quite long afterwards, she came to Iree and
started staying here.
However, in January, this year, she told me that she was going back to
Lagos and I asked about her decision to return to Lagos. This time, she
took her two children to Lagos but I was not comfortable with it and I
gave her husband money to go and bring back the first child so that she
could continue her education in Iree. I didn’t want anything to disrupt
her education because it might be difficult to find a school for her in
Lagos.
She later brought the child back to Iree. About a week after, she
went back to Lagos and the next thing we heard in the news is that she
has become a model. We did not really take the news seriously at first.
Her husband called and told me that he wanted to travel to Lagos because
some people took the picture of Jumoke and they were looking for her
and eventually found her at the bakery where she usually bought bread in
large quantities. He said they asked him to come to Lagos over the
matter. I gave him the transport fare and he left for Lagos. When he got
to Lagos, Sunday called me and said that it was good news and we were
all happy.
What is your advice for Olajumoke now?
This is a thing of joy for me and Jumoke’s parents. For us in the
Orisagunna family, we see it as a big success. Jumoke and her husband,
my son, should continue to pray and thank God and realise that it is God
who has brought them this far in life.
