Following the much-publicised conviction of Akolade Arowolo by an Ikeja High Court for murdering his wife, Gboyega Alaka catalogues some celebrated cases of domestic violence in Nigeria, attempting a psycho-analysis of the trend, as well as a solution.
FEBRUARY 21, 2014 would probably go down as one day perpetrators of domestic violence across Nigeria would want to look back at and have a rethink about their actions. That was the day 31-year-old Akolade Arowolo, a youth pastor at the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Gbagada Parish, Lagos, was sentenced to death for killing his wife, Titilayo. Arowolo had been standing trial in a celebrated murder case for killing his banker wife, an employee of Skye Bank Plc on June 24, 2011, at their Isolo residence in Lagos after a domestic scuffle. Expectedly, the accused had, along with his lawyer, put up spirited defence efforts, countering that his late wife actually died from knife wounds she inflicted on herself. He argued that Titilayo stabbed herself severally on the day of the fight, before attacking him, claiming she was possessed by an evil spirit.
Nearly three years of investigation and legal processes that attracted several witnesses, including neighbours and relatives, plus an autopsy report conducted on the deceased body, however, proved otherwise. Prof. John Oladapo Obafunwa, a specialist pathologist, submitted that the deceased died from 76 knife wounds, collapsed that argument and convinced Justice Lateefat Okunnu of the Ikeja High Court of murder intent and action, for which Arowolo has therefore been sentenced to death. Arowolo’s defence counsel, Olanrewaju Ajanaku, has also promised to appeal the ruling, arguing that the court relied on hearsays from witnesses who were never physically present at the scene of the fight to convict his client. As it stands, however, he might have to do a lot more, to save his client from the hangman’s noose.
To many, however, Arowolo’s conviction is just a tip of the iceberg. They argue that the youth pastor was just fated to be convicted, insisting that thousands of domestic violence perpetrators are still on the loose out there, beating, maiming and killing their spouses (usually the females). Some would even tell you that the killing and maiming happen every day, despite the fact that there are laws that expressly forbid such. Worldwide statistics has it that 70percent of women actually experience some form of violence in their lifetime. But gruesome as that seems, Nigeria’s statistics pushes it to the cleaners, as it is said that one in every three women between ages 15 and 24 get battered by the day. This is in spite of the fact that nearly half of the cases are never reported to the police or documented, ostensibly due to illiteracy, ignorance, culture/religion or a distrust of the system.
Husbands from hell
In August 2012, 27-year-old Mary Sunday, who was on the verge of proceeding for a cadet officers’ training at the Police Academy in Kano, ended up at the intensive are ward of the Igbobi Orthopaedic Hospital following an attack by her Police Corporal fiancé, Isaac Gbanwuan. Gbanwuan had allegedly accused her of infidelity following a suspicious phone-call she received. This led to a heated argument that ultimately resulted in his bathing her with a pot of boiling stew and lighted stove in a fit of anger. Sunday sustained serious degree burns on her neck, chest and upper arm and even lost an ear in that gruesome attack. She could also neither walk straight nor sit properly for months, wallowing in excruciating pain and struggle for life. Amazingly, Gbanwuam, the alleged assailant, carried on as if nothing happened and was even spotted at his duty post in Ebute-Ero, despite the fact the case was reported at Pedro Police Station, Bariga.
Middle-aged Oluwakemi Fawowe suffered a somewhat similar fate, when she was bathed with boiling water, stove and all by her husband, causing her serious burns from her neck down to her waist. Courtesy of the attack, Oluwakemi laid critically ill at the Ogba Medical Centre for months, and could not lie on her back nor stand upright. She even had to cry out for public assistance at a point to pay her hospital expenses and carry on the treatment. Sensing that her husband’s temper and incessant assault and battery on her person were getting to an unbearable level, she had temporarily moved out of their matrimonial home to take refuge with her in-laws, only to be traced there by her husband.
If the two cases above are scary, how would one describe the case of 36-year-old Mercy Nnadi, whose enraged husband calculatedly scorched her with hot pressing iron on her breasts, arms and leg, killing their one-year-old baby in the process? Mercy’s husband had accused her of having an affair with his father and therefore proceeded to torture her with the hot iron into confessing on the fateful night. Thanks to spirited NGOs like Project Alert on Violence Against Women, Centre for Women Development and Zaharawomen, Mercy recovered fully from the well-publicised attack and has been fully rehabilitated. However, the last that was heard of her intemperate husband was that he was awaiting trial at the Ikoyi Prisons.
Sometimes, the reasons for these domestic attacks can also be unbelievably petty and flimsy. This is especially so in the case of Mathias Nweze, a former staff of the Enugu State Independent National Electoral Commission, who allegedly shot and killed his wife in anger, after she prepared a different meal from what he expected. Nweze had actually reported himself to the police for mistakenly killing his wife. He ‘confessed’ that he had shot twice at the direction of his generator, on the suspicion that thieves had invaded their home in their Umuida Enugu Ezike Town in Igboeze North Local Government Area of Enugu State and were tampering with the set. It was, however, the neighbours who countered his story, saying that they overheard the argument over food and the subsequent shooting. They contended that he made up the story to wriggle free from a murder charge.
In Uzebba-Iuleha, Owan-West Local Government Area of Edo State, a certain Godwin Idon allegedly beat his wife, Marvis Idon, to death over the killing of a snake in their home by one of their sons. The act, considered to be a taboo in the land, led to a prolonged quarrel, which led the wife to seek the intervention of a native doctor along with her mother-in-law. But this action further infuriated the husband, who accused her of supporting the erring son. In a fit of anger, he hit her on the head with a plank and the woman immediately slumped and died.
Contrary to expectations, pregnant women are not spared from this horrific molestation and assault. In June 2012, a pregnant Funmilayo Ajibola was reported to have died two days after she received a serious beating from her husband, Kola. A member of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Kola was said to be extremely jealous and was in the habit of beating his 30-year-old wife over the slightest suspicion. He was said to have severally destroyed the deceased SIM-cards anytime he heard her receiving calls from people he didn’t know or whom he suspected of having an affair with his wife, causing her to change lines 15 times in just six years of their marriage. It got so bad that he even ordered her to choose between himself and her father, after the deceased came home late one night from visiting her father. On the day of the final beating, Funmilayo was said to have received a call from her maternal uncle, when Kola, who didn’t recognise the number, picked on her and started the beating.
The same went for four-month pregnant Mujidat, who slumped and later died at the University Teaching Hospital, Ibadan, following a late night quarrel and beating she received from her commercial driver and mechanic husband, Adeleke Adeniyi. Their neighbours testified to being kept awake due to their heated quarrel, but said they could not intervene, since they thought it was a mere domestic quarrel that they would eventually settle on their own. They also said they became apprehensive when the quarrel intensified hours after rather than abate, causing them to force open their apartment door to intervene. That was when they found Mujidat lying helplessly on the floor and immediately rushed her to a nearby hospital in Apata, before being referred to the UCH.
Silifat Ladeji, an upcoming Yoruba actress, also suffered the same fate in February 2013. She was reported to have been beaten to death despite being heavily pregnant. The report also said Silifat had endured repeated battery and assault from her husband in silence, before the fatal beating.
Quite interestingly, Toyin Saraki, former First Lady of Kwara State and founder of The Wellbeing Foundation of Africa, once spoke of a psychological
