My wife is a young woman, she is in her thirties and she has been a good woman to me, let’s speak the truth and shame the devil.
But I have divorced and the reason I divorced her is because as a man, I just could not stomach what happened to her…I just couldn’t. After that incident, I tried to put it out of my mind but I couldn’t; I just realised we were always quarrelling so I decided to divorce her so that both of us can have peace.
This happened almost two years ago. We had been having cases of armed robbery attacks in our area, so the landlords and tenants decided to create a vigilante group that would be patrolling the area at night. We divided ourselves into groups and we took turns to patrol our community.
We resorted to this method because the police couldn’t protect us! Before we created the vigilante, whenever the robbers came, we would shout and shout and call police numbers but they never came until the robbers had taken our properties, raped our women and left.
Yes, it was that bad!
So now, with the help of some OPC, we were able to keep the robbers away for sometime but you know many of us do to regular work and the vigilante work was beginning to tell on us at our places of work. I for one was always sleeping on duty on the days I did vigilante overnight so after a while, some people stopped showing up for their turn to keep watch, so some of us had to take their positions. Anyway, this was our situation when we all just stopped the patrol, we thought the robbers had found another community to raid, so we relaxed.
A few weeks after the vigilante stopped, the robbers descended on us, full force! It was as if they were angry that we prevented them from robbing us for a long time. They came in a group of up to 20 or more to our community, with guns, cutlasses…every kind of sharp weapon you can think of…they came for revenge!
They came to my house; they broke down the gate and knocked on my door at 2am! They told me if I didn’t come to open the door for them, they would break it down and kill all my family members in my presence!
I have never known fear like that in my life! I could hear some of them knocking down the gates of my neighbors, I could hear women screaming in nearby houses, so I knew the entire community was being raided at once!
Forget the police, even if they came, the kind of gun shots I heard the robbers shooting that night, the police wouldn’t have been able to match it.
I had to go and open the door for them, after pleading with them to spare my family. I have two small children, two boys and my wife.
As soon as I let them in, they just descended on me with cutlass, beating me and marking my body with the cutlass, they cut me because they said I wasted their time; see blood everywhere, I just kept begging them to spare my life. They asked us all to lie face down and tell them where all our things were…they dragged my wife up, beat her too because they said she was the one who prevented me from opening the door for them, we were both pleading.
After that, they asked my wife to show them where she stored her jewelry.
She told them she didn’t wear expensive things…as soon as she said that, their leader just stripped her naked and said he wanted to check if truly she didn’t wear expensive things!
I knew they would rape her, standing naked like than in front of three armed robbers?
He just pushed her towards our bedroom while his two boys ransacked our house; they took all our money, they kept asking for more money and I kept begging them we had none. They took our handsets and destroyed the things they couldn’t carry…
I heard my wife’s voice in the bedroom with the robber that dragged her there, I heard him slap her to keep her quiet. I wanted to get up to go and plead with the armed robber with my wife but I they told me to lie down.
I was begging them, begging the others to talk to their oga for me. Then he called his boys to come to the bedroom, that was when I managed to crawl towards the bedroom…to be honest, I didn’t want to see him while he raped my wife, I didn’t!
But I was still hoping that at least, it won’t be all of them on top of her, you understand? So I was calling out as I crawled towards the bedroom…the others were watching so between their legs, I saw him on top of my wife!
It will remain the worst thing I will ever see in my life so far!
He used one hand to pin her down and was having sex with her, on our bed! I just began to cry and I closed my eyes…
You know?
He must have been at it for…I don’t know, for some time…then I heard my wife moaning!
My heart jumped!
She was moaning, just like she moans when I am having sex with her!
Walahi!
What is this? A woman moaning while being raped? She was enjoying the rape abi what?
From where I was, I couldn’t see her face well but I heard her very well…she was moaning like it was her husband that was on top of her!
Chai, I am dead!
Is this what the world has turned to?
A man is made to watch his wife enjoy rape? Right there and then the hatred I had for my wife just came to my mouth! I tasted it like bitter agbo
When he finished, they left our house!
The woman now started crying; she was crying as if she didn’t just moan under the bastard just some few minutes back!
Hummn
When the robbers left, my wife was still crying as if the rape was a big deal, I mean wasn’t she the one moaning a few minutes back?
Were the tears for me?
Or didn’t she realise I was in the room and heard her? Since that day, I knew my wife and I would never be man and wife, ever, ever again! I tried to pretend, you know, after the robbery, when we all came together as a community to take stock and report to police. I told my wife not to report the rape that it would be a shame on her and our family. It was best to say, they stole things but didn’t rape her, abi?
So after we had all calmed down, like two days later, I asked my wife why she was moaning that night the robbers came? The woman denied it!
I said, “Are you mad? I was in the room!”
“You were moaning just like you do when I am on top…” she said it is not so, that she was in pain…
I don’t believe her. In short, after that incident, I couldn’t bear looking at her, I couldn’t bear being on the same bed with her, I just couldn’t even bear touching her. So I told her I was going to divorce her. I sent her away because that sound of enjoyment she was making has not come out of my mind since that day. It is not my fault, I tried to remove that image but it is in my head and her moaning still echoes in my ears!
(Series written and edited by Peju Akande and based on true stories)