Born Kefee Obareki in Sapele, Delta State, she had all the
signs of stardom stamped on her: a beautiful voice, a restless spirit and a
ting of controversy. She started quite early and by eight, she was already in
the church choir. Even as a teenage chorister, rumours were spreading that she
was sleeping with the choir director, Alec Godwin ─ the pastor’s son. The
rumours nearly broke the church as the pastor was accused of protecting his
son. It was all rumours, Godwin would reveal years later, but it did not stop
the two of them from eventually falling in love and getting married, against
the wishes of Kefee’s mother, Ejirooghene. Godwin recalled, when the marriage
eventually headed for the rocks, that Kefee’s mother told her something on the
day of their wedding which remained a mystery to him. According to Godwin,
Kefee came out of the conversation looking sad and “did not sleep with me for
three days”. The marriage lasted from 2005 to 2008, and the divorce was as
dirty as it could be. Godwin told an interviewer the beginning of their crisis:
“It all started on March 16, 2008, on a Sunday morning. There was a programme
in Abuja and she was supposed to go and minister in church. She said there was
no need for me to join her and that I should just drop her at the airport and
come and pick her up when she came back. I agreed. “But when she came back from
Abuja, I started noticing some changes. Kefee never liked staying at home
alone. But since she came back, Kefee could afford to stay alone and she was
always with her phone. It was strange. For the first time, Kefee would walk
away while we are recording.
