Posted by By Kayode Fayemi on
The once secret romance between Mr. Elkanah Mowarin, Chief Executive Officer, EOM Business Network and Shirley Aghotse which eventually set the stage for the ultimate emergence of the latter as the reigning Miss Tourism, has hit the rocks.
The once secret romance between Mr. Elkanah Mowarin, Chief Executive Officer, EOM Business Network and Shirley Aghotse which eventually set the stage for the ultimate emergence of the latter as the reigning Miss Tourism, has hit the rocks.
Mowarin was the pageant's corporate consultant.
Interestingly, both ex- love-birds are of Urhobo ethnic stock.
Signs that their relationship has hit the rock emerged last Sunday when Mowarin's Festac Town, Lagos home was stormed by a detachment of policemen, accompanied by the tourism reigning queen and her mother, ostensibly to retrieve her belongings.
Unfortunately, they met a brick-wall as Elkanah was not in town.
In separate interviews with Sunday Sun at the weekend, a furious Mowarin and heart-broken Shirley sang different tunes.
In the cell-phone chat, Mowarin blamed all on his ex' friend (name withheld).
His words: "It was all her (Shirley's friend's) handiwork. After she was removed as the pageant manager by Nike Agunbiade, she felt the best way for her to get even was to influence Shirley negatively.
"Go and ask Nike Agunbiade why she removed her (Shirley's friend). She was taking Shirley around to meet men under the guise of soliciting funds. One of such persons they went to was Jimoh Ibrahim. Everything was just fine until she began to manipulate the young girl."
Responding, Shirley asserted: "Me I no care again oh. You (Sunday Sun reporter) can go and write whatever you want. I will not be the first queen that will be dethroned."
Switching to pidgin, she added: "But just help me beg Elkanah make him allow me carry my passport. If they dethrone me, I go simply relocate abroad. A beg, I don tire for this kind wahala. Wetin?"
In her own comment, Shirley's mother (Mrs. Aghotse), called the EOM boss unprintable names, accusing him of being a desperado, asking rhetorically: "Na by force person dey marry woman?"
When contacted, Mrs. Agunbiade pleaded for time before issuing a statement. Her words: "You see, I'm in Abuja right now, and I don't know what is going on. Call me in a week's time, by then I would have made an enquiry."
But defending herself, Shirley's friend said:
"Elkanah should be ashamed of himself. A 40 year old man, who would soon be 41, giving such a young girl all these stress. Can you imagine that he has seized the girl's clothes and official car which is parked in his compound?
"You know what really pained Shirley most? Her passport that is in her luggage. She was supposed to present it at the embassy, but he has refused to give it to her.
"Also, Governor Gbenga Daniel (of Ogun State) invited Shirley to the Miss Gateway beauty pageant and because she had no clothes to wear, she cannot go. You can see how heartless Elkanah is treating a 23 year-old girl like this. A girl young enough to be her 10th sister.
"Elkanah would be posing that he has spent so much on this girl, but let me tell you, there was a time that Elkanah was so broke he could not even buy fuel for his car. At that time, Shirley's mum gave her 1,500 pound sterling. And can you believe that Elkanah took 1,000 pounds out of the money and up until now, he has not returned it?"
Genesis
Investigations by the Sunday Sun revealed that Elkanah met Shirley in 2004 shortly after the zonal finals of the Miss Tourism pageant in Lagos, which Shirley incidentally lost. Apparently cashing in on the opportunity of Shirley's abysmal performance at the event, Elkanah made overtures to her and she accepted.
Sunday Sun reliably learnt that Elkanah, desperate to see Shirley crowned the queen, facilitated her participation in the Osun State zonal finals, even when she had previously lost at one of the zonal competitions. There, Shirley came tops before she surprisingly emerged as the overall winner in a grand finale that took place in Abuja.
Elkanah's relationship with the tourism queen was apparently further consolidated with a visit to Shirely's mother, an indication that marriage was on the cards.
Right from the outset, Elkanah had impressed it on Shirley that he was not out for a fling and Shirley was said to have agreed willfully. Sources close to Elkanah also hinted that Shirley's mum not only gave her nod, but her blessing to the relationship, excited afterall, that not many girls are that fortunate to snag a multi-millionaire, and a good-looking one at that.
The moving in
During the build-up to the grand finale of the beauty pageant, Mowarin was said to have lavished hundreds of thousands of Naira on Shirley's costumes as well as "tushing" her up in order to triumph at the Abuja finals.
Against all odds, Shirley later emerged as the first ever Miss Tourism queen, bagging a Hyundai salon car, as well as other mouth-watering gifts.
Apparently to guarantee absolute custody of his "investment", not too long after, sources said, Elkanah, a smart Warri dude, invited Shirley to move into his palatial Festac Duplex, a gesture the newly crowned queen could not resist. Speedily, she obliged.
The consultant as lover boy
Elkanah somewhat sweet-talked the Nike Agunbiade-led Miss Tourism organisation into appointing him as the organisation's corporate consultant, a request that was readily granted.
With Elkanah's good relationship with the media, in no time at all, Shirley was launched from obscurity into limelight overnight.
Until the romance turned sour penultimate Sunday, hardly could one open a magazine or a newspaper without a mention being made about the new queen.
For a while, everything went smoothly but like all good things, it finally came to an end July 3.
Bubble burst
The first tell-tale sign that there was a crack in the secret romance came to the fore in June 21 when the beauty queen first attempted to remove her personal effects from Mowarin's home.
Agitated brothers of the E.O.M's CEO had promptly alerted him on the queen's moves, to which Elkanah reportedly ordered them to stall her move pending his return from a business trip to Osun State.
Meanwhile, Elkanah was said to have got in touch with her immediately, trying to ascertain why she wanted to move out of their love nest.
It was then that Shirley dropped the bombshell.
She reportedly told Elkanah that she was fed up with the relationship and that she needed space to get her bearings and to ruminate on the relationship.
The freeze
When it dawned on the smart bachelor dude that Shirley was beating a retreat, he reportedly instructed his brothers to grant her leave, provided she took nothing of the hundreds of thousands of Naira worth of luxury items he had lavished on her while the going was good.
Shirley, Sunday Sun gathered, was hamstrung, in the sense that she came into Elkanah's life with virtually nothing, save the clothes she wore on the day Elkanah first courted her.
Urhobo Wayo vs Urhobo Wayo
Shirley, upon being informed by Elkanah's order, promptly enlisted the assistance of her mother, who followed her to Elkanah's house. Oddly enough, Elkanah's brother would not open the door for her. She was left with no option than to sleep in the Miss Tourism official car right on Elkanah's doorstep.
When Elkanah eventually returned from his trip, friends of the lovebirds were said to have waded into the matter, imploring Mowarin to overlook his younger lover's misdemeanor, and allow the 23-year-old queen move back into his house and life.
Love-struck Elkanah was said to have agreed to the settlement and he allowed the beauty queen to move in. But if there was peace after the mediation, it was fleeting.
Titanic finally succumbed
Hardly had Shirley moved in than she again demanded that she be allowed to pack her things and leave much to the chagrin of Mowarin, who had earlier allegedly suffered a similar fate in the hands of his ex-lover, one Vivien Joseph, who dumped him a couple of years back.
That incident, Mowarin's friends claimed, taught him a bitter lesson never to allow any lady take him for a ride again.
With both parties'minds made up, it was obvious that the relationship, like the ill-fated luxury liner, The Titanic, had capsized and was sinking so fast.
On July 5, Shirley and her mother reportedly stormed Elkanah's Surulere, Lagos office, with the aim of heckling him to allow Shirley leave with all her things.
But like the biblical King Pharaoh, Elkanah would not allow her go.
Determined, mother and daughter and her friend took the battle to Elkanah's residence last Sunday. But the lover-boy was not in town.
Acting on a tip-off, Sunday Sun undercover reporter had laid an "ambush" before the drama started.
The drama
Early that Sunday morning, Shirley, her mother, friend and some other well wishers, encamped right on Ekkanah's doorstep, but as fate would have it, the EOM president was not at home.
After waiting for hours without seeing Mowarin's "break light", a battle strategy was devised and it was agreed that Shirley's mum and friend should enlist the police support to make Elkanah "see reason."
Shortly after they left, Sunday Sun reporter drove in, and for close to one hour, was an eyewitness to the love gone sour.
Around 4.50p.m, Shirley's mother, her friend and two plain-clothes policemen, drove into the street in a light blue Peugeot 505 salon car with the registration number A5771 MUS, and headed for Elkanah's house.
Suddenly at about 5.05pm, there was a cacophony of noises, punctuated by the ferocious barking of Mowarin's huge Alsatian guard dogs. Shortly afterwards, Mowarin's niece strolled out of the house and headed out.
Some 5 minutes later, she returned with the Estate's uniformed security men.
A couple of minutes after the niece and the security guys came in, there were more angry exchanges inside the compound and thereafter, Shirley, her mother, friend and the plain-clothes policemen emerged.
The beauty queen, now sporting some wild pimples on both cheeks, looked quite regal in a white-flowing boubou and black pants complete with high-heeled shoes.
Meanwhile, the battle to retrieve her belongings from Elkanah's house continues.