By Nnamdi Nwachukwu, Enugu
A mother of eight has narrated how she was forced into marriage at 13 and how her husband and father of her eight children has been battering her since then, reports The Gazelle News.com.
Mrs Chaiamaka Okechi of Ezeama Mgbagbuowa community in Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu state said the latest in the series of violence she endured from her husband came on Friday, 21 August, 2020 when her husband, Obinwanne Chiafo of the same community broke her head with an iron rod.
According to her, on that fateful day, Obinwanne violently kicked down her door, dragged her on the floor and attacked her.
She said: “He pounced on me kicking, and started punching me very hard all over my body, including several heavy blows that landed on my chest. Despite my screaming as a result of the excruciating pain, he kept on beating me and brought an iron rod and hit my head causing me severe head injury. When I fell down, he ran away thinking that I had died.”
She further narrated she went to report the incident at a police station at Aguobu Owa, Ezeagu LGA, the nearest community. The police allegedly demeaned money before they can effect any arrest.
She stated that because of police lack of interest, people directed her to Women Aid Collative (WACOL), a group fighting for rights of women to sought help.
Chiamaka who is currently, staying with the rights group, lamented that the greatest challenge facing her now was that she is unable to go back home for the past three days out of fear that the perpetrator could return and carry out his threat to kill her.
In her plea, she further stated that, “I want WACOL and law enforcement agencies to assist me to arrest this man, because I don’t want to die, and I have nobody to run to. Please help me”.
Speaking to newsmen, the Founder and Executive Director of WACOL, Prof. Joy Ezeilo, said that her organisation would support her to gets justice and treatment for her injury.
Ezeilo who is the Dean Faculty of Law, University of Nigeria Nsukka, disclosed that WACOL had given Mrs Chiafo N10, 000 to take care of her immediate needs adding, “She will also receive medical treatment, free legal aid, counselling and psycho -social support.
“WACOL legal clinic will also follow up with relevant law enforcement agencies to ensure that the perpetrator is arrested and properly charged for grievously bodily injury, including murder threats,” she vowed.
When contacted, the state police public relations officer, Daniel Ndukwe, said that he was not aware of the incident and promise to find out.
Investigations by this medium revealed that the 27-year-old Chiamaka, was forced into the marriage at the age of 13 and started giving birth immediately which forced her to drop out of school.
Chiamaka who is currently nursing the head injury inflicted on her by supposed lovely husband, told journalists that her 13-year-old marriage has been tales of woes as she has endured several forms of violence and abuses from her spouse.
The mother of eight stated that she is currently living in a mud house without any significant source of livelihood apart from her little subsistence farming within her immediate environment.
Chaiamaka narrated how the father of her children severely battered her, forcefully ejected her from their matrimonial home since five years ago, including taking custody of her seven children and denied her access to them.
She further noted that he married two different women, after he forcefully evicted her and had never objected to his marriage, but despite that he still come to her parents’ house to assault her severally.
She disclosed that her estranged husband returned in 2019 to ask for forgiveness, which she accepted only to got her pregnant for the eighth child and abandoned her again.