Dr David Favour Love, the husband of the late Mrs Shimite Winifred Love, former Special Adviser on Trade and Export to the Delta State Governor, has denied the allegation from certain quarters that he was responsible for his wife’s death, as was claimed at the time of her death in April this year.
In a press conference in Abuja at the weekend, Dr Love, who said he shared a very close bond with his late wife, accused property-grabbing individuals from her family of spreading the false narrative to get him out of the way and keep hold of their shared property.
According to him, on the day his wife passed away at a medical facility, those individuals quickly broke into their house, stealing her gold, diamonds, and other valuables.
He also said he had survived two lynch attempts following his wife’s death on 21 April this year.
On what really caused his wife’s death, Dr Love, who said he hails from Ondo Town in Ondo State, presented an autopsy and toxicology report by the Forensic Science Laboratory, Force CID Lagos. The report stated the causes of Mrs Shimite’s death as acute left ventricular failure, hypertensive heart disease, and aspiration pneumonitis.
He said people trying to frame him had ignored the autopsy reports and went ahead to spread false claims that he had shot, strangled, or poisoned her, just to achieve their sinister motives.
Dr Love also clarified that he was legally and traditionally married to the late Delta politician.
“We have been best friends for about 20 years, if not more. And we legally became a couple as well. We had our court marriage on 18 January 2024 and did the traditional marriage on the 19th.
“Our court wedding was witnessed and signed by her immediate younger brother, who also coordinated the traditional rites, for which we did all due diligence.
“Shimite and I were very close for more than 20 years. We registered a company together back in 2014. The two of us were the sole directors.”
On the reliefs he is seeking, he complained that some compromised police detectives connived with his wife’s family to bury her illegally:
“The Monitoring Unit of the IGP was compromised. They claimed to take over the case and even acted outside police and international law enforcement jurisdiction by unlawfully releasing the corpse of my late wife, even though they had every solid and tangible piece of evidence.”
Dr Love called on the Inspector-General of Police to instruct the Monitoring Unit to release his late wife’s phone to him.
“He should also carry out disciplinary measures against the Monitoring Unit for issuing instructions and travelling to insist that the hospital illegally release my late wife’s corpse—an act that is beyond police jurisdiction.
“The Monitoring Unit and the legal team at the Force Headquarters have displayed a high level of compromise and unprofessional conduct.”
Dr Love also called on the inspector general of police to prevail on the police legal team at Force Headquarters to stop accepting “a petition from our neighbour, who—based on his actions—was clearly colluding with other neighbours and attempting to convert our house to the use of a foster child raised by my wife.”
Dr Love also threatened to sue all media outlets and bloggers who have sustained the false narratives against him.
He further pleaded with Delta State Governor, Sheriff Francis Oborevwori, to: “address the oppression and victimisation I have experienced from my wife’s extended family—who, with the support of certain personalities in his government, abducted our four-year-old daughter Sheila Obiajulu Uyor Oluwashayo Love, and carried out the illegal burial of my wife without my consent or approval.”
Dr Love also appealed to his late wife’s extended family to cease their campaign of calumny and defamation, which he said was aimed at deceiving the public about “the death of my precious wife, Shimite Love,” stating that the autopsy and toxicology results had cleared him of all the false narratives and propaganda.
