A 68-year-old British woman, Dawn Otewell, has cried out after her Nigerian husband, Bright Emokpae, 31, disappeared following his relocation to the United Kingdom to join her.
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Otewell said she was lonely and depressed when she met Emokpae, who is from Edo State, Nigeria, on a dating app. Despite the 36-year age gap, she said he pursued her and professed genuine love, prompting her to give the relationship a chance. The couple has now been married for four years.
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According to Otewell, she is now concerned that her children’s inheritance could be at risk, as Emokpae has gone missing and refused to sign divorce papers that would disinherit him in the event of her death.
Otewell, a grandmother of seven, said she is in poor health, living with heart disease, sciatica, angina and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). She said she is struggling to track down her husband so she can formally serve him with divorce papers and end the marriage.
She said she believes Emokpae, 31, has deliberately gone missing to avoid deportation from the UK.
“It’s an absolute nightmare,” Otewell, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, told The Sun UK. “I’m still his legally married wife, but apparently, I have no right to know where he is.”
She alleged that her husband was refusing to sign the divorce papers in order to retain his spousal visa, adding that she had not spoken to him since he blocked her on social media about eight months earlier.
Recounting their last exchange, Otewell said she had told him she was aware he had moved house and left his job, but that she simply wanted him to sign the divorce papers. She said he replied that he no longer had the documents and would not sign them.
Otewell said her declining health has heightened her anxiety over the unresolved matter. “My biggest fear is that I’ll die before this is sorted out and he’ll run off with the money my three children should inherit,” she said.
She disclosed that she has not written a will, and fears her husband could become entitled to her possessions, including jewellery, cash, and household furniture, should the matter remain unresolved.
Dawn met Bright after she signed up to dating apps Tinder and Plenty of Fish in 2021.
Bright initially told her he was a professional in his thirties called Brian Thomas, but after the conversation moved to WhatsApp, he confessed he was a fashion student in his mid-twenties from Benin, Nigeria.
Dawn forgave his lie and fell in love with him as he showered her with compliments during regular video calls.
In March 2022, eight months after they first met online, she agreed to fly to northern Cyprus where Bright was living on a student visa.
“I know I was a fool, but I was in love,” Dawn said of her decision.
“When I met Bright, he made me feel special and alive.
“He told me I made his heart go ‘boom boom’ and I was the loveliest woman he ever met.
“He made me feel attractive again.”
She added: “I knew he was a bit young. The lies he told me about his name and age should have been two massive red flags.
“But he was romantic and persuasive.”
Dawn and Bright married at a registry office in Nicosia on March 22, 2022, with two of his Turkish friends acting as best man and maid of honour.
The wedding certificate shows that he was 27-year-old student, while she was a single housewife aged 64 at the time of the wedding.
She says: “I stayed in Cyprus for a month with Bright, but I would not call it a honeymoon. It was supposed to be two weeks, but he asked me to miss my flight, and he begged me to marry him. He said he loved me and I believed him.”
Dawn then returned home to Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, while Bright flew back to Nigeria to sort out a spouse visa to live with her in Britain.
It finally came through a year later, and Dawn excitedly travelled to Heathrow Airport to welcome her new husband to England.
It was then that the problems started.
Dawn tried to help Bright settle in, while her brother Rory, 72, secured him a job in manufacturing at a door firm.
But according to Dawn, her new husband became cold and distant and would make constant financial demands, claiming he was in debt from their wedding.
She added that he refused to contribute financially and was always sending money to Nigeria.
She says: “He was sending a lot of money back home to Nigeria.
“I got all-new furniture, and he didn’t put a penny towards it. When we went out for dinner, it was usually me picking up the bill.”
Dawn and Bright eventually broke up in October 2023, only to get back together six months later when Dawn was given a £63,000 payout following a botched prolapse operation she underwent at an NHS hospital.
With hindsight, Dawn realises she was foolish to take him back after she won a huge sum.
She said: “I should have worried he was only after my money when we got back together.
“Bright’s eyes must have lit up when he found out I had received so much.
“Whenever we went out to the cinema or for a meal, he made sure it was always me paying.
“I know I shouldn’t have taken him back, but I wasn’t happy being on my own again, and he insisted his intentions were honourable – that he had changed.”
The relationship remained rocky and just before Christmas 2024, Dawn headed off on a £2,000 Caribbean cruise with her brother to cheer herself up.
She says Bright flew into a rage, saying she should have given him the money to pay off his debts.
When she returned, Bright walked out, never to return.
She believes he is now living in Scotland where he appears to have started an online clothing business, which he is advertising on social media.
She says: “I know I never should have fallen for him in the first place.
“I’m convinced he was never in love with me and just wanted a visa to move to England.
“And it’s because of his cherished spouse visa that he won’t agree to a divorce.
“I know Bright needs to stay in the UK for another two years before he’s entitled to settle permanently – he’s been here three years.
“I’m getting help from the Citizens Advice Bureau, but it’s taking forever because they need to find out where he’s living.
“I just want him out of my life for good.
“Ialso want people to know that if this can happen to me it can happen to anyone.
“I would advise them to be very careful who they marry, especially when the person is from abroad, because a lot of them are just doing it for a visa – and then they disappear.
“I feel I’m being used.
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