This head-line has nothing to do with ‘Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again’ by Ola Rotimi’s comical play that tells the story of Lejoka-Brown, a soldier and a man with many wives. No! It‘s a story of Nigerian men who went mad killing their wives.
Despite several workshops by Non-Governmental Organisations, State Governments and Federal Government to sensitize Nigerians on the dangers of domestic violence and wife murder in the country, wife murder act is still on the increase. In the last eight years, over 1000 women have been killed by their Nigerian husbands on flimsy provocations throughout the country and even abroad.
Last year, the Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Mrs. Adejoke Orelope
Adefulire, said an estimated 1.3 million women have been recorded to be victims
of physical assault by an intimate partner each year. According to her, 85
per cent of domestic violence victims are women, while historically; females
have been most victimized by someone they knew.
She averred that domestic violence against women accounted for most
deaths recorded in the state, promising that the state government was ready to
do all within its power to eradicate every form of violence against women and
girls. She also stressed the need for coordinated efforts by all stakeholders
in the state to ensure the full implementation and enforcement of the Lagos
State law against domestic violence.
In 2011, the Lagos State Ministry of
Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation organized workshop for security
operatives on the contents and application of Domestic Violence Law of the
State in order to enlighten them on the interpretation and application of the
Law as part of efforts to end domestic violence in the State.
The
workshop which was held in 2011, in collaboration with United Nations Funds for
Population Activities (UNFPA) at Chartered Institute for Personnel Management
(CPIM) had participants from the Police, Immigrations and Customs.
The Deputy
Director, Ministry of Justice, Mrs Yinka Adeyemi, analyzing the contents
of the Law, said that domestic violence was not limited to physical injury, but
also includes marital rape, physical, psychological and economic abuse,
hazardous attacks, among others.
According
to her, by virtue of the current Domestic Violence Law in Lagos State, it is
now an offence to commit the act of violence against anyone and that whoever is
caught should be reported to the Police.
She
explained that because of long judicial process, Sections 5 and 6 of the Law
provide for Protective Order for the victims, while the case is being
prosecuted in the law court.
The
Protective Order prohibits the respondent from committing further act of
violence like entering complainant’s residence, place of work or enlisting the
help of other persons to commit domestic violence.
She
regretted that in spite of the seriousness and criminal nature of domestic
violence, our cultural beliefs have played down the law and made it less
serious while the law enforcement agents often view it as a ‘Family Affair’.
Adeyemi
explained that the workshop was organized to sensitise participants on the Law
and its implementation, as well as the need to treat it with all seriousness.
On the
arrest of perpetrators, Adeyemi explained that the provisions of the Law are
explicit and that Police should effect arrest with, or without warrant when the
offence is committed.
She
informed participants that the State Government had put all necessary legal
instruments in place and would not relent until domestic violence was reduced
to minimal level in the State.
It’s common
these days to read about husbands killing their wives in Nigeria on a slight
provocation.
On May 27
at Oronna Street in Abule-Egba area of Lagos was a case of a 60-year-old man
allegedly killed his wife over his missing N500.
Reports
said fight broke out after the man identified as Gbadebo Elegbede, accused his
17-year-old son of stealing his N500 at about 7am. His wife, Maria, was
said to have defended his son, an action that reportedly led to a verbal
confrontation with her husband, which degenerated into a scuffle.
In the
process, Gbadebo was said to have hit his wife with a hard object on the face,
causing her to slump.
His son,
Johnson, was said to have attempted to lift his mother from the floor only to
discover that she was motionless and bleeding from the mouth and nose.
Johnson
reportedly ran out to alert neighbours to come to his mother’s help, but they
met the door of the apartment locked from inside, with Gbadebo threatening to
kill anyone who attempted to force the door open.
Residents said
some of the deceased’s relatives who rushed to the scene were also prevented
from seeing Maria’s corpse as the door was still locked. According to the
residents Gbadebo was a wife beater and that day wasn’t for the first time. The
residents further revealed that the first time they lost their daughter, which
Gbadebo locked her daughter up in the room preventing neighbours and his wife
from entering inside the house.
In Immiringi community of Ogbia Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, a
pregnant woman was stabbed to death by her 21-year-old husband. The incident was
due to domestic squabble between the couple. On October 7 2012, at Agbado in Ogun state of Nigeria
a 46-year-old unemployed man was arrested for allegedly killing his wife by
throwing her into a pit latrine over a domestic misunderstanding. on Saturday, July 21, 2012, Mathias Eze, a former Commissioner in the Enugu State Independent Electoral (ENSIEC), throw caution to the wind and allegedly killed his wife of 16 years and ended the union that produced six children. Reports said Eze allegedly fired gunshot on his wife for her failure to prepare stewed rice for the day’s supper.
In Owerri the domestic attacks on wives by their husbands was also recorded when Mr Vitalis Okere ran amuck and killed his wife and escaped. The man who hails from Ihitta Ogada in Emekuku community of Owerri North local government area of Imo State took off after killing her heartthrob to avoid being lynched by the irate youths in the community. On the same murder case was Rich Oganiru, a well known face of Nollywood and a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria and has starred in over 300 movies. The actor is facing a murder scandal charges for his alleged involvement in the complicity leading to the death of a very rich Abuja based multimillionaire businesswoman believed to be his wife.
In Ghana, a
26-year-old Nigerian man, Nathaniel Udama Edu, is being held by the Mile 7
Police at Achimota in Accra, for the suspected murder of his wife-to be-
girlfriend, Matilda Asante, 19, a senior high school graduate at South Afankor.
The body of
the deceased was found in the neighbourhood, wrapped in a bed sheet and her
legs tied, while her head was covered in a black polythene bag.
Narrating
the incident in Accra, the Crime Officer of the Mile 7 Police Station,
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Mr Henry Agbeve, confirmed the
incident and said the body of the deceased was found on the compound of an
adjoining house in the Ga West municipality, lying in a supine position.
According
to him preliminary investigations conducted indicated that the body was thrown
into that house after the act with the legs tied, the head covered with a
polythene bag and the rest of her body wrapped in a bed sheets.
As that wasn’t enough, a 62 year-old man, Christian
Agbaga is already in prison custody by the orders of a Yaba Magistrate court, for
the alleged murder of his wife following her purported refusal to grant him sex
in the night.
Wife of the
accused, Regina Agbaga, was said to have been strangled by her husband at their
10, Ligali Street, Ajegunle, Lagos home. She allegedly held her neck on their
matrimonial bed. The accused (Agbaga) is facing a murder charge under section
221 of the Criminal Code Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria 2011.
Sharing the
same fate with Agbaga is one Henry Nnamdi of Lambe Street, Ago Palace Way,
Lagos. He allegedly killed his one-year-old son, Chukwuebuka, in order to teach
his wife a lesson. Nnamdi accused his wife of having an extra-marital affair.
After killing his son, Henry also used a hot pressing iron to burn his wife, identified
as Mercy, and stabbed her repeatedly in order to force her to confess to the
allegation. A police source said 40-year-old Henry had been suspecting that his
wife was having an amorous relationship with his father for a while. Reports
said things turned sour when the wife turned down her husband’s request for sex
resulting in an argument between the couple.
It was gathered that the suspect had been
suspecting his wife of extra-marital life but on that fateful day, he returned
home late and was ironing his customers’ clothes on the floor while his wife
and son were on the bed. It was disclosed that because of the poor ventilation
of their room, the wife and son were both naked. Henry then told his wife he wanted to have sex
with her but she refused. Annoyed with her wife’s refusal which he attributed
to her extra-marital affairs, he grabbed the pressing iron and started inflicting
burns all over wife’s body, including her private part, asking her to confess.
After killing the wife, he allegedly grabbed his son and fled but the corpse of
his son was later found in the compound next morning.
On
September 11, 2012, 35-year-old Janeth Odehgbe was set ablaze by her husband
following disagreement over her collecting a cup of wine from another man
during a party they both attended.
Report says
the 39-year-old husband; Mr Kehinde Adesanmoye poured petrol on her wife as she
was preparing Indomie noodles for a customer. She was nearly consumed by the
fire but for passers-by that rescued her and was taken to Peaceful Convalescent
Center, Alhaji Obe Street, Ejigbo Lagos. Janeth hails from Isoko area of Delta
State and sells cooked Indomie along Ikotun roundabout. According to her, after
divorcing her first husband she illegally married to Adesanmoye also known as
Ogunlade.
Trouble was
said to have started for the duo on September 8, 2012 when Adesanmoye and his
wife went for a naming ceremony of a friend who stays beside their residence at
22, Olaoluwa Street, Abaranje, Ikotun. At the party, she went and sat with her
friends who were also present at the party. It was there that one of the men
offered her drink which she accepted before her husband, an act which
infuriated her husband. It was when they got home that the man lithe fire on
her as punishment.
The Enugu
State Police Command, on Thursday September 6th, 2012 paraded Sunday Eze for
allegedly butchering his wife with a machete in Nsukka, Enugu State.
Also in
police net is a middle aged man, identified as Peter Odion, who allegedly
killed his wife, Ifeoma Ohalele Odion, for eating his food. The incident
occurred at their residence at 2, Olushola Close, Abule Taylor, Abule Egba,
Lagos State. Trouble started when the suspect claimed he told his wife to
prepare eba food for him and her daughter, but she refused, claiming she had
headache. Peter allegedly went ahead and prepared the eba; only for the wife to
get up to eat the food. It was gathered that feud ensued between the couple as
the suspect insisted that his wife must not eat the food.
In the
course of the fight, Peter pushed her and she hit her head on a hard object
inside the room and fainted. He raised an alarm and neighbours assisted him to
rush the unconscious woman to the hospital. “I did not intend to kill her
because we have not had any disagreement before the tragic incident happened,”
he said. “I pray that God would forgive me.” Peter was quoted as telling the
police.
In
Calabar, cross River State, a young man, Lawrence Ufan Ette,
allegedly struck his girlfriend to death with a stone during a fight in the
victim’s house over her phone.
Miss
Roseline Ijeoma Christopher, 23 was allegedly killed by her boyfriend over her own
phone which the boy friend allegedly stole from her room when he was on a
visit. Miss Dorothy Bassey, the landlady of 13, Academy Street, Calabar, reported
that Ette and Ijeoma had been in a relationship for a while but Ijeoma’s mother
told Ette to stop coming to their house because of his bad behaviour towards
her daughter. However, according to Bassey, against her instruction, Ette kept
sneaking in to see Ijeoma, especially at night until the fateful day he killed
Ijeoma. Running close to Ette is Dick Chidiebere, 34, who is on trial for
allegedly killing Naomi Chidiebere, 24 on fire. Both married at the Jehovah’s
Witness church at Ijegun in November 2011.
Naomi was allegedly set ablaze by her husband following a quarrel. The
incident happened on February 10, 2012 at the couple’s four bedroom residence
in Ijegun –Ikotun area of Lagos State barely three months after the couple
exchanged their wedding vows.
According
to neighbours, on that fateful day Dick, a sailor, came back home late in the
night drunk and she challenged him on his drinking habit, which infuriated the
husband as he beat her up and later rushed into the store where they kept
petrol for the generating set and poured it on her as she ran into the closet
to hide from his beating, the suspect lithe matches and threw it on her and
rest is history.
A
middle-aged man, Mr Nduibuisi Egeonu in Enugu attempted to kill his pregnant
wife and his two male children when he locked them up in his barbing shop and
set the place on fire.
The
incident which happened at about 11: am at No. 61 Mount Street, Idaw River in
the Awkunanaw area of Enugu was said to have come as a surprise to both the
pregnant woman and neighbours.
It was
reported that Egeonu, who is still on the run, arrived his shop that morning
and requested the wife to escort him to a filling station to buy fuel. It was
learnt that when they returned, he reportedly tried to drag one of his female
neighbours from a nearby shop, claiming she was indebted to him. The effort
proved futile as neighbours intervened. However, as if he was under a spell, he
dragged his wife and children to his container which served as his shop and
purred the fuel on it before setting it on fire.
Report says
neighbours rushed to the shop when the fire started and heard voices inside. He
allegedly tied his wife’s hands, poured petrol into the shop, locked the shop
and put the place on fire before escaping. By the time the door was broken, the
pregnant woman and her children had been severely burnt. The act is not only
limited to ordinary men alone. Even those working in the vineyard of God are
also in the act.
A senior
Pastor of United Evangelical Church, one Rev. Sunday Alfa allegedly murdered
his wife, a mother of four for refusing him sex. The wife, Mrs. Rose Alfa was
murdered in the Mission House at about 3am in Igojo, Ubali Village near Okene
in Kogi State.
Report says
that before the woman gave up the ghost, she confessed to a Policeman, who was
taking her to the hospital that she did no wrong to her pastor- husband and
that the man came in the night in the room she was sleeping to demand for sex,
but she refused because she gave birth to her last baby in October last year
through caesarean operation and that the doctor asked her to abstain from sex
for some time. According to reports, the woman had divorced the pastor and went
to Benin City to live with her brother, one Mr. Alex Abah.
But Four
years later, the pastor went to meet the wife relations and begged them for
forgiveness and pleaded with them to allow his wife come back to him because he
had been promoted to Senior Pastor adding that it was only on him living with his
wife that his promotion would be accepted. The wife’s relation accepted his
request and asked their sister to return to her husband. It was on that that she
was killed by the same man who asked for her to return back to him.
An Abia State High Court has sentenced a banker, Mr.
Theophilus Ajakaiye, to death by hanging for killing his wife, Theodora.
The convict
allegedly murdered his wife on October 12, 2009 at Azumini Ndoki in the Ukwa
Judicial Division of Abia. The charge read, “The accused person is charged with
one-count of murder contrary to Section 319 (1) of the Criminal Code Vol. 11,
Cap. 30 Laws of Eastern Nigeria, 1963, applicable in Abia State.” Until her
death, Theodora was an employee of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc. The legal battle
between the deceased’s family and the accused began soon after the alleged
killing until the judgment recently.
The Presiding
Judge, Justice T.U. Uzokwe, said in his judgment that having heard from the
accused person, learned counsel for the accused and the prosecuting counsel,
the offence carried a mandatory sentence which is death.
He said the court
had no power to reduce the sentence and that being the case; he had no option
but to sentence the accused. The judge said, “Though the accused was not seen
killing the deceased, I find that the accumulated circumstantial facts found
proved that the accused indeed murdered his wife, Theodora Ajakaiye. “Suffice
it to say that I find the accused guilty as charged and I convict him
accordingly.” It was during his stay with the wife that the pastor eventually
murdered her over sex.
Barely a month ago, was the internet abuzz
with the story of a Nigerian Pharmacist who killed his wife. Olufemi Oladapo
Ademoye, 52, ran out of his house at 8615 Villa Largo Drive in north Tampa at
9:50 a.m. and asked a neighbour to call 911. He said his wife, Juliet Ademoye,
had a heart attack, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. But when
deputies and rescue crews arrived, they found that the master bedroom and
bathroom were covered in blood. Deputies also determined that an aluminium
baseball bat was covered with her blood. Juliet Ademoye, 53, was pronounced dead by Hillsborough County Fire Rescue.
Even Nigerians in foreign countries are also guilty of this madness. On Thursday, July 24, 2008, a 50-year old Nigerian man Michael Collins Iheme shot and killed his 28-year old estranged wife, Anthonia Iheme. Iheme reportedly placed an emergency call to the police after allegedly killing his wife. He was quoted as having told policemen on arrival at the scene of the murder that he had “killed the woman that messed my life up, a woman that destroyed me.” Eye witnesses said Anthonia was shot as she left work at the Sholom Home West, an assisted-living centre.
Iheme fired at the vehicle. Anthonia’s car then lurched forward, clipped a van, jumped a kerb and rolled down a hill into a fence. Iheme was said to have followed the car down the hill and fired more shots at the car. When Iheme was arrested at the scene, a semi-automatic handgun was found near his car, police said. The police also found a gun permit inside the car.
Police also said that an hour and a half before the shooting, Iheme went to the day-care centre for their children and left new emergency contact information, “in case something happened today.” A Nigerian woman was found murdered in a Burtonsville, Maryland, U.S. home she lived with her husband Chidiebere Omenihu and three children. Police responding to a report of an unconscious woman; found the lifeless body of 36-year-old Chidiebere Omenihu Ochulo around 2:30 am at their home. There was no sign of her 41-year-old husband, Kelechi Charles Emeruwa and their three children. Mr. Emeruwa was seen washing a blood stained knife according to unconfirmed reports. He was believed to have fled the city with the children.
Police on failing to locate Mr. Emeruwa and the children at their home, commenced a manhunt for the suspect and issued an Amber Alert on the missing children. Amber Alert is a U.S. voluntary partnership program between law-enforcement agencies, broadcasters, and transportation agencies to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases. Broadcasters use the Emergency Alert System (EAS) to air a description of the abducted child and suspected abductor. Police arrested the suspect, 41-year-old Kelechi Charles Emeruwa, on a first-degree murder warrant in the death of his wife. The children were unharmed and taken into custody by police.
Mr. Theophilus Ojukwu, who is now serving a life sentence in Texas for killing his wife Melvina, allegedly fled to a hotel in Mesquite, a Texan city, with his four children, and called police informing them of the incident. Mr. Ojukwu was arrested that evening and remanded in custody at Lew Sterrett Justice Center. Sources close to the family said that about two years ago, Melvina Ojukwu’s mother, who was here on a visit, tragically died in her house, at the same 5400 block of Barcelona Drive where she met her untimely and heartbreaking death.
In all the cases, Nigerians who spoke to our correspondent attributed it to an end of time as stated in the Bible; “that at the last day, husbands will rise against the wives and children against their parents, nations against nations.....”
Christiana Eluchie, member of Winning Daughters Ministry in Ikotun Lagos blamed it on lack of knowledge about God. She said a lot of people go to church but they don’t heed the teachings of the bible. She said women should know that Devil is on the loose and quickly embraces Jesus Christ as their personal saviour in times of difficulties. She called on women to obey their husbands as the head of the family.
According to Margret Oladinde, a businesswoman, it’s because people marry for money and positions and when those things are no longer there, disrespect crept into their marriages and quarrels becomes the order of the day. She attributed it to lack of family praying life.
Chinedu Omeife, a vendor told Newswatch that greed and envy are the main cause of a man killing his wife. According to him, when a man goes to marry a woman that has money more than him, it’s difficult for that woman to obey the husband and some wicked men can kill because of the money of the woman.
There are indications that some men have killed their wives because of fear that their wives will inherit their wealth and properties. Most of the cases have been the fact of infidelity which is ruining some Nigerian marriages both in Nigeria and abroad. Investigation has shown that most of the murder cases resulted as a matter of infidelity.
Mrs. Livina Okoro, a sociologist said immaturity before going into marriage could also lead to such murder cases. She argued that not being able to stand the stress of married life could cause a man to kill his wife. She warns parents who want quick marriage for their children to desist from it or face the consequences of such an early marriage. Women rights groups should intensify ongoing efforts towards protecting young girls from parental pressures that ultimately lead to untimely deaths such as the one in question.
According to Deacon Chinedu Onyeanuforo of Heavenly Reality Dream Ministry at Okota, “one man said ‘any man who is mad enough to cause the death of his own wife should be sent to a psychiatric hospital and not a police cell. There is need to find out the mindset of such a man’”. He said. There should be advocacy group taking these responsibilities rather than leaving it to police”.
No comments:
Post a Comment