ENUGU – A 38-year old pure water seller in Enugu, Mrs. Onyinyechi Ozokolo, is about to lose one of her eyes as a result of her husband’s alleged attempt to chop off the eye with teeth.
Mrs. Ozokolo, a mother of six, had been going through domestic violence in her matrimonial home for over three years by her husband, Mr. Ndubueze Ozokolo.
Ozokolo who hailed from Ezeagu and resides at Agric Quarters, Coal camp Enugu, is currently going through pains as a result of domestic abuse as the said husband allegedly inflicted on her eye.
Narrating her ordeal, Mrs. Ozokolo who lamented over her 13 years’ marriage said her husband abused her on daily basis adding that the maltreatment and beating had been going on for over three years.
On why the husband attempted to chop off her eye, Mrs. Nwokoro said trouble started when her husband brought out a cutlass and started beating her daughter. “I asked him why he was beating our daughter with cutlass and the next thing he did was to start beating me and then bit me on my eye.
“I was rushed to the hospital by my neighbours and he never came to the hospital to see me nor pay my medical bills. So when I was discharged, I reported the case to the police and the office of Women and Child Justice Initiative which later led to his arrest.
“I am really living in fear with my kids because we don’t know what he will do next as we are still staying in his house because we don’t have any other accommodation. I want to plead with government and other philanthropists to come to our aid and provide shelter for me and my children,” she pleaded.
On his side, Mr. Nwokolo denied biting his wife’s eye saying it was stone that hit her on the eye.
“I did not bit her eye, it was stone that hit her. I was beating my daughter on that faithful day because she disobeyed me and the mother came to fight back and as a result, stone hit her on the eye,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the founding Director of Women and Child Justice Initiative Nigeria, Barr. Amaka Ilodigwe, said the case was reported to her office “and we have taken action as we must ensure that the husband go to prison for abusing this innocent woman
“This is an assault and offence on its own because women have right and dignity of human person and should not be discriminated upon but must be protected.
“Unfortunately, the man that is supposed to protect her has destroyed her dignity, so we will make sure that the man is charged to court,” she said.
Also, The Chairperson of Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Enugu State chapter, Comrade Ngozi Ngene, who condemned the act lamented over the alarming spikes in the cases of physical and domestic violence against women by their spouses saying, “The ugly development is becoming worrisome, reprehensible, dastardly thus, totally unacceptable.
“It is disheartening to note that in spite of the ongoing sensitisation campaign against sexual and gender-based violence, the domestication of the VAPP laws in many states of Nigeria, some brute men are still in the habit of beating their wives and threating them as slaves and not partners by inflicting injuries on them.”