Ibinabo Fiberesima refused to apologize – A
sister of the late Dr. Suraj Giwa who was killed by actress Ibinabo
Fiberesima has
revealed how the actress refused to apologize after the incident.
In the interview with Punch, Biola Giwa-Adeyemi also
spoke about her family’s reaction to the incident and the new prison sentence.
Excerpts from the interview
below!
Were
you in Nigeria when your brother, Dr. Giwa died?
I have always lived in the US. I was home when the accident
happened. I have been living in the US for the past 33 years. We have forgiven
Ibinabo. We have moved on with our lives. My mum is still alive. She
cannot talk to anybody on this issue. It is going to be a fresh wound. Some
people are saying we have not forgiven her. But that is not true. The Giwa
family has moved on. It was an accident and accidents do happen. When
people go out every day, I don’t think anybody sets his or her mind to go out
and kill somebody.
So
why is Ibinabo’s own different?
It wouldn’t have been like this. It was just the way she
conducted herself after the accident. When the accident happened, she fled
the scene of the accident. She doesn’t have good advisers. The state government
had to find out who the owner of the car she was driving was. That was when it
was found out that the car belonged to Daniel Wilson.
We learnt you said you would never forgive Ibinabo and you would
make sure she was sent to jail…
Why would I want to say
that? Is it not God that forgives? I don’t even know her, so why would I
say I wasn’t going to forgive her? I didn’t know who she was. We weren’t even
bothered about her. My mother had two kids in that car. My brother’s wife came
from England and we were having a prayer session. That was when I saw Ibinabo.
Would I say anything like that during a prayer session? We were all crying. One
of them went to my husband and somehow, it was arranged that they meet me. My
other brother who was involved in the accident works in the US and he had to go
back. He asked me to stay for a little while so that one of us would be with
our mother. I had to stay.
But did you at any point have a
one on one discussion with her?
God is my witness, my husband was
also there, she got out of the car and she came to me. The people she came with
were just somewhere there, they didn’t even come close. I asked her what she
wanted and she said she had come to plead so that the charges would be dropped.
I told her it wasn’t between us and her but between the state government and
her. But I told her I would rather give her an advice that would work for her.
I told her if I were in her shoes, I would apologise publicly to the masses and
also to the family. I advised her to throw herself to the mercy of the court.
If she had done that, people would know she was remorseful and they would know
she had indeed apologised. But she said she wasn’t going to do that. She said
it would damage her career. Believe me, if not that so many eyes were on us, I
would have kicked her for saying that. My husband was beside me when she said
that. He even looked at me. I couldn’t believe it. What? Dr. Giwa was the head
of physical rehabilitation medicine in LASUTH. He was the only one that had
that credential then in Lagos State. Dr. Giwa was valuable to the state. He had
helped a lot of people out. We have forgiven her; my mother has moved on, Dr.
Giwa’s kids have moved on.
No comments:
Post a Comment