Follow Us on Google
What did 73-year-old Papa Malachy Odoh do to deserve such punishment from fate?
The man, who will turn 74 this coming June, has already endured blows that would have broken many others. Yet life seems determined to keep throwing punches at him, as if he were a battered boxer trapped in the unforgiving ring of existence. The latest blow came in the form of a brutal fire disaster that ripped the roof off his house and nearly finished the job that tragedy had begun years earlier.
Papa Odoh’s troubles did not start with the fire. In 2018, he lost his first child, a beloved daughter who died while giving birth. The grief struck him with devastating force. The emotional shock triggered a stroke. Then another stroke followed. And then a third. Three strokes in all. Yet the old man survived them all. But just when it seemed that life might grant him a little peace, another disaster came knocking. A week before Good Friday, while Christians across the world were preparing spiritually for Easter, tragedy visited Papa Odoh’s home at No. 85 Dele Orisabiyi Street, off Ago Palace Way, Okota, Lagos. His property consists of three buildings standing side by side like pink-painted triplets. The front structure is a duplex where Papa Odoh lives with his wife and children, while the two buildings behind contain flats occupied by tenants. On that fateful day, all three buildings were consumed by fire. Flames leapt from one section of the buildings to another, tearing through the structures and blowing off their rooftops as if bombed. For the Odoh family, it was a catastrophe unfolding in real time.
A devout Roman Catholic, he had attended church earlier that day to participate in the Stations of the Cross, the sacred ritual in which Christians meditate on the suffering of Jesus Christ on His way to Calvary.
The ritual recalls the humiliation, torture and eventual crucifixion of Jesus between two criminals. One of the men mocked Him for claiming to be the Son of God, while the other defended Him and was promised salvation. In the biblical account, Jesus turned to the repentant thief and said: “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
After leaving church, Papa Odoh joined neighbours mourning a boy in the compound who had died. It was a sombre gathering. Later that day he returned to the house and sat downstairs with his wife and children watching television. None of them had the faintest idea that fire had already started upstairs in his bedroom.
According to Papa Odoh, the first warning came not from inside the house but from the street.
“It was people outside who were shouting ‘Fire! Fire! Fire!’,” he recalled. “But we did not know where the fire was coming from.”
At first the family assumed the alarm must have been raised somewhere else in the neighbourhood. It was only when someone shouted that the fire was coming from Papa Odoh’s room upstairs that panic set in. They tried to rush upstairs to see what was happening, but by then the blaze had already taken over the entire room. Thick smoke filled the staircase and flames were licking the walls.
“By that time the fire had engulfed the whole room,” Papa Odoh said. “There was smoke everywhere. It was only God that saved us because the fire could have consumed all of us.”
At that moment the old man became too emotional to continue speaking. His wife, Mrs. Olufunlayo Odoh, stepped in to explain what happened next. According to her, the fire completely destroyed the upstairs section of the house from the roof down to the floor before spreading downstairs. Realising that the situation had become hopeless, the family ran for their lives. Outside, they discovered that a crowd had already gathered. Many of them said they had been banging the gate and shouting for more than 15 minutes, but the family inside had not heard the alarm.
Mrs. Odoh believes the confusion may have been linked to unstable electricity supply that day. “For five days there had been no power,” she explained. “That day they were bringing light and taking it again and again, maybe six times or more. Because of that we did not know anything was happening upstairs.”
The most painful part of the disaster, she said, was that everything important in the family’s life had been kept in the room that caught fire.
“All our documents were there,” she said sadly. “My children’s certificates, my own papers, my husband’s documents—everything. We wanted to run upstairs to bring them out, but smoke and flames were everywhere. We came out with nothing. It is a day I will never forget. But I thank God that we are alive.”
Help eventually arrived in the form of the fire service, but by then the blaze had grown out of control. Worse still, there was very little water available in the neighbourhood because electricity had been off for several days and many houses had been unable to pump water into their tanks.
Neighbours tried desperately to assist, but most of them had no water to contribute. The firefighters themselves reportedly attempted to draw water from a nearby gutter, but there was hardly anything there to use.
In the midst of the chaos, several brave young men climbed nearby electric poles and attempted to pour buckets of water onto the burning buildings from above. Their efforts slowed the fire, but it took a long struggle before the inferno was finally brought under control.
When the flames eventually died down, the destruction was heartbreaking. The three buildings that once stood proudly on the property had been reduced to roofless shells. The walls were charred black, and the structures looked like abandoned relics. Housing authorities have since declared the buildings unsafe for habitation. For Papa Odoh and his family, the result is sudden homelessness. Yet amidst disaster, the old man’s faith remains unshaken. When asked whether he felt God had failed him, he rejected the suggestion outright.
“God has not failed me and will never fail me,” he said firmly. “If not for God, what would I be saying today? If any of us had died in that fire, the whole story would be different. Human life is more important than anything material.”
Reflecting on his past, he said the only tragedy that had ever shaken him as deeply was the death of his daughter in 2018.
“This one is another tragedy,” he admitted. “But I believe God will raise people who will help me. I am praying that God will send someone to assist us.”
The Odoh family moved into the house on May 29, 1999, the very day Nigeria returned to civilian rule. Building the property had taken them seven long years of hard work and sacrifice.
“When we came here the whole place was bush,” Papa Odoh recalled. “My house was almost the last house on this street.”
Today that same house stands damaged and deserted. Yet the story has also revealed something inspiring about the human spirit. Neighbours describe Papa Odoh as a cheerful and generous man who has always maintained warm relationships with people around him. In response to his tragedy, members of the community have begun mobilising support to help him rebuild his home.
Those willing to assist can send contributions to: Account Name: Odoh Malachy. Bank: Ecobank. Account number: 3831003346.
He can also be reached on 08135721819.
For a man who has survived three strokes, buried a daughter and now watched his home burn before his eyes, perhaps compassion from strangers will become the miracle he has been praying for. If goodwill prevails, Papa Malachy Odoh may yet return to the house he built brick by brick, proving once again that even after the harshest blows, life can still rise from the ashes.
