A 68-year-old British woman who married a 31-year-old Nigerian man when he was just 27 has cried out after he disappeared after joining her in the UK.
Dawn Otewell said she was lonely and depressed when she met Bright Emokpae, from Edo State, Nigeria. She said they met on a dating app.
Though he is 36 years her junior, he wooed her, professed his love to her, and made her feel his love was genuine, so she gave him a chance.
Now, four years on, Dawn is concerned that her children’s inheritance might be at stake as Bright has disappeared and refused to sign divorce papers that will disinherit him if she dies.
Dawn, a grandmother of seven, is in poor health with heart disease, sciatica, angina and IBS.
She says that she is now struggling to track down Bright so she can serve him with divorce papers and be free of him.
She is convinced the 31-year-old has intentionally gone missing to avoid being deported from the UK.
“It’s an absolute nightmare,” Dawn, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, told The Sun UK.
“I’m still his legally married wife, but apparently, l have no right to know where he is.
“He’s done a runner and is refusing to sign the divorce papers because I believe he wants to cling on to his spouse visa.
“I haven’t spoken to Bright since he blocked me on social media about eight months ago.
“Our last conversation was when I told him: I know you’ve moved house and left your job and I don’t care; I just want you to sign the divorce papers.
“He replied: ‘I don’t have them anymore. I’m not going to sign them.
“In the meantime, my health is not good.
“My biggest fear is that l’I die before this is sorted out and he’ll run off with the money my three children should inherit.”
Dawn, who hasn’t written a will, fears Bright could be entitled to her possessions, which include jewellery, cash, and the furniture in her home.
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.”
