Eleven Rooms, Nine Days: The Price Imaobong Paid For Saying No

CROSS RIVER, CALABAR – On January 14, the argument was not loud. There were no broken plates. No visible bruises. No shattered windows.

There was only a sentence Imaobong refused to take back: “I will not allow you to convert the school into rented living rooms.”

By evening, she was inside Afokang Correctional Facility.

A School Built on a Certificate

Imaobong is not just a wife in dispute. She is a graduate of the University of Calabar, Faculty of Education, a mother of five, and the proprietress of Excellent Foundation Academy.

The school was established using her academic qualification. It was her professional investment, her livelihood, and the primary structure supporting her children.

The compound contained eleven rooms. For years, those rooms functioned as classrooms, places where children recited alphabets and multiplication tables.

Then the conflict began. Her husband, she said, wanted to convert the school into living apartments for tenants.

“He said the rooms should be turned into rented spaces,” she recalled. “But I said no. The school was meant to feed and take care of the children.”
Seven rooms were eventually forfeited and converted. Two of them were classrooms.

For the sake of peace, she agreed that four rooms could be managed differently. But when pressure mounted to convert the remaining rooms, she stood firm.

That refusal, she believes, triggered her arrest.

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From Disagreement to Detention

Police officers who identified themselves as J.J and Mr Ita, operatives from the State CID arrived at the compound.

The dispute, which had earlier been described as a family matter suitable for mediation, suddenly carried criminal weight.

“When they came, they questioned him,” she said. “He could not show any injury or evidence against me.”

She was taken first to the police station at Ikot. Nakanda in Akpabuyo LGA, where her statement was recorded. She assumed she would be returned home. Instead, the vehicle changed direction.

“They drove me straight to Afokang,” she said. “And left me there.” She would spend nine days in detention.

The alleged offense stemmed from her refusal to allow further conversion of the school building into rental apartments.

Five Children Waiting

At home were five children, including two boys, suddenly without their mother. “When I was there, my children were hungry,” she said. “They were looking for something to do just to protect their interest.”

For Imaobong, the argument has always returned to one point: provision.

“If buildings are being converted, where is the children’s own?” she asked. “What are we using to feed them?”

She insists children recognize effort.

“Children hardly lie,” she said. “If someone tries fifty percent, they will say it. But this one is not even up to fifteen percent.”

To her, the conversion of classrooms into tenant rooms reduced not only physical space but also financial security for her family.

The Cost of Freedom

Inside prison, uncertainty grew heavier each day.
It was members of her church who intervened.
“They stood by me,” she said.

According to her account, over one hundred thousand naira was raised and paid to secure her bail and facilitate her release.

“They brought more than a hundred thousand naira,” she said quietly. “That is how I came out.”

The money did not erase the humiliation. It did not restore lost classroom space. But it brought her back to her children. Citizens’ Rights and Continuing Conflict.

Citizens’ Rights Commission for intervention

She said the commission affirmed that since the school was established with her educational certificate, she should remain the proprietress and the compound should continue serving educational purposes.

Both parties were reportedly instructed to open a joint account linked to the commission’s office to monitor school fee payments transparently.

However, she alleges that compliance has not followed.

“He opened a personal account instead,” she claimed. “That was not what they instructed.”
Additional rooms, she said, were forfeited without proper reporting.

“They called us again for mediation,” she explained. “We appeared.” But resolution remains pending.”

A Marriage Documented, A Dispute Unresolved

Imaobong confirmed that her marriage is properly documented in the church and through completed traditional rites.

Yet documentation has not prevented division.
At the center of everything are eleven rooms, five children, and a question of control.

What She Wants

Her demand is direct. “I want my share of the property for the children,” she said. “So everyone will clearly know what belongs to them.”

She wants relevant authorities to intervene decisively, not only to enforce previous mediation directives but also to ensure that the welfare of her children is secured.

“I need authorities to come in and help me succeed,” she said. “This school is for the children.”

More Than a Family Dispute

Truth live news reports that what happened on January 14 was not just an arrest. It was the criminal escalation of a domestic disagreement over property use.

A mother said no. A teacher defended classrooms.
A proprietress refused to turn a school into rental units.

Nine days later, she returned home over one hundred thousand naira poorer, emotionally shaken, but still asking the same question:

“If everything is being converted, what belongs to the children?”

Until that question is answered with clarity and enforcement, Excellent Foundation Academy stands as both a school and a symbol of resistance, of vulnerability, and of a mother’s determination to protect her children’s future.