According to Punch, a wife
and mother of two was attacked by her mother-in-law, also by her
sisters-in-law, Bose Showole (39) and Oduntan Enitan (24), at their family
house on Isale-Agbede Street, on the Lagos Island area of Lagos State.
The fifty-two years-old
housewife, Olasunkanmi Lawal, has lost the use of one of her eyes after a
scuffle with her mother-in-law, Aduke Awakan.
The case was reported at
the Adeniji Adele Police Station, leading to the arrest of the suspects.
The victim explained that
she was attacked because she stopped giving money to the septuagenarian.
She said, “My husband and I
live in the family house and we have been there since 1989. We have two
children.
“However, my mother-in-law
started keeping malice with me after I stopped giving her money. I lost my
jewellery business due to the demolition of my shop in 2014 and because of
that; I could no longer support her.
“On Saturday, January 16,
around 4pm, I returned from work and I met her at home. When I greeted her, she
shunned me. I was surprised because I never had any disagreement with her.
“Before I knew it, one of
her children, Bose (Showole), punched me in the left eye. I fought back. Her
grandchild, Enitan, used stone to hit me in the same eye, while the woman
herself hit me with a chair. Blood started coming out from the eye.”
She said she reported the
assault at the Adeniji Adele Police Station and from there, she was referred to
the Lagos Island General Hospital, where the doctors told her she had lost the
use of her left eye.
A medical report from the
hospital, signed by one J.O. Owuye, said the victim was diagnosed with, “left
periorbital swelling, abrusion at anterior chest wall.”
It was learnt that the
police arrested the 79-year-old, but later released her on bail after the two
other suspects, Showole and Enitan, were produced by the family.
Lawal, however, accused the
Investigating Police Officer, Ajekigbe Sarah, of siding with the suspects
against her.
She alleged that the IPO
deliberately prevented her from completing her statement at the station.
“She stopped me midway and
said I should go to the hospital for treatment.
“But when I returned to
finish writing the statement, she said it was no longer necessary. Even the DPO
queried her for the action,” she added.
Her father, Alhaji Ahmed
Oshodi, called for justice.
But the septuagenarian
suspect, Awakan, denied the allegations.
In her statement to the
police she said, “It was about 4pm. I was at home when Alhaja (Lawal) came in
and greeted me and I told her not to greet me again.
“Alhaja is the wife of my
son. I asked her not to greet me because the previous day, she abused me
indirectly and I decided not to reply her greetings again.
“So, when she came in and
greeted me, I shunned her, but one of my daughters intervened.”
She said Lawal and her
daughter had an argument which degenerated into a fight.
“I don’t know how she got
injured in the eye,” she added.
Showole, in her defence,
said she intervened because Lawal, who was her brother’s wife, was “abusing my
mother and pointing a finger at her”.
“I pushed her hand and she
slapped me on the face.
“Then we started fighting.
She held my clothes and I did the same. I don’t know what happened to her eye,”
she said.
Enitan denied involvement
in the fight.
She said the fight was
between Lawal and Showole.
The police, however,
arraigned the trio before a Tinubu Magistrate’s Court on three counts of
assault occasioning harm.
The charges read in part,
“That you, Aduke Awakan, Bose Shobowale and Oduntan Eniola, on January 16,
2016, did unlawfully assault one Olasunkanmi Lawal, by giving her fist blows
and injuring her with a crate of eggs and stone that led to injury in her left
eye.”
The police prosecutor, I
Okeke, said the offence was punishable under sections 409, 171 and 170 of the
Criminal Law of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2011.
The defendants pleaded not
guilty to the charges and elected summary trial.
The Magistrate,
Mr AA Adefulire, admitted them to bail in the sum of N20,000 with two sureties
in like sum. The case was adjourned till March 24, 2016.
Punch
it happen all the time in naija, especially among the illiterate. it should and must stop.
ReplyDeleteGod punish dem mama papa, evil people
ReplyDeleteDem no meet wife beater, beat dem sista mama put together.nonsense.
ReplyDelete