Tonia odua also evicted from Gulder ultimate search

Not many viewers of this year edition of Gulder Ultimate Search will easily connect 21 years old, Delta state born Tonia Oduah with one of the leading contestants in the 2009 edition of Gulder Ultimate Search, Melvin Oduah.
Melvin had a strong fan base while on the programme due to a lot of factors principally, his good physique, smartness, endurance ability and at the end he missed the opportunity of becoming the last man standing by a whisker as he became the first runners up to the overall winner Uche  Nwaezeapu. 

The handsome Melvin had cultivated large audience of followership among the home viewers who were expecting him to be the last man standing.  Notwithstanding, his coming second in the search was highly celebrated among his fans on his blog and at his Lagos home. 

However, by a stroke of luck and coincidence, Melvin’s immediate younger sister, Tonia went through the whole rigorous regional screening in Lagos, without anybody’s noticing her relationship with Melvin, proved her mettle and got picked in an apparently transparent public selection process for the final 12 to participate in the 7th edition of Gulder Ultimate Search.Hope was high when she made it to the jungle; to an extent that other contestants were glaringly apprehensive about her inner strength which everybody believed probably runs in the Oduah family.

Tonia’s eviction in Episode 7 was not only shocking, it was disappointing to those that had put in much confidence and hope in her. She was expected, like her immediate older brother, to go far in the programme.

Like Tonia, her older brother, Melvin who was 22 years old when he participated last year and came second was unassuming. The two siblings also share a lot in common. They are of the same height, share same complexion, of same parents and both are well educated. Melvin, who actually has a twin sister, is a graduate of Industrial Chemistry while Tonia is a Psychology undergraduate at the University of Benin.

Meanwhile the circumstances that led to her eviction can be best described as ill luck. The task for the 11 remaining contestants that morning was an individual endurance test where they have to walk steady with three heavy bags. She was unfortunate to have tripped over when she stepped on stone while running, which automatically disqualified her as she turned out to be the first contestant in the game to get taggedThe painful aspect of the challenge that day was the fact that one of the contestants, Mercy, who could not endure the stress of the challenge, decided to outsmart her contending challengers but was caught. This happened just immediately after Tonia had fallen off and got tagged by Chukwuma .

The verdict pronounced later by the Council of Elders at the Place of The Talking drum was that Tonia stands evicted as long as she had tripped shortly before Mercy was caught. For lack of character, Mercy received severe punishment from the council of Elders.

Her eviction dampened the spirit in the camp, as all her fellow contestants couldn’t come to terms with the fact that the beautiful and cheerful queen in the jungle has had to stop her time from running. The question now is, whose time will stop running next?