By Franklin Ihejirika, Lagos
It was like a Nollywood movie scene acted on stage recently when a young man in his early forties dragged his wife to the Ikeja Police station to make official complaints over series of threats to his life in recent times.
The man who came along with his wife to the station may not realize that one of the people waiting around the counter at the Police station is a Journalist who picked interest in his story, using the opportunity to probe him further so as to get the whole story.
Speaking to one of the policemen on duty across the counter, the man who identified himself Samson Effiong, not real name complained bitterly that his wife has been threatening his life over accusations of her infidelity.
According to Effiong, “this is not once or twice she is doing this, this last one, she woke me up around 2 am with a knife, threatening to stab me, if not by the grace of God and the maturity I used in handling the situation, I or she would have been dead by this time .”
The man who was really enraged over the advice by his brothers, in-laws, relatives and some policemen on duty to take the case home and resolve it amicably as the matter is a domestic issue which may not be properly handled or settled by the police declined to take their advice .
Effiong responded that for a woman to wake her husband up around 2 am on several occasions threatening to stab him, that the case has passed the stage where it can be handled as a family matter.
“God forbid, if this woman had succeeded in stabbing me to death or we started struggling for the knife and I stab her, all these people here saying is a family matter will not say this again, now nothing has happened, let us end this marriage before it ends disastrously because the marriage has broken down completely as this woman has no love for me again.
Imagine a woman like this who cannot stick to her husband but will rather be chasing young men around. Ask her, I did everything to provide for her, she does not lack anything, both materially, sexually and other wise, yet she is not satisfied, she will be chasing young men outside and spending my money on them.
This is the kind of thing people accuse men of doing, but in this situation, is a woman, my wife, I have tried to conceal it from my relatives when I discovered this in order not to bring shame and ridicule to the family, believing that I can handle it on my own, but this did not work”, Effiong said.
He explained further that, “despite the fact that am a young handsome man, this woman is never satisfied with me, she does not resist young handsome men outside, that is her weak point and she is a serial liar who can never admit her guilty even when you catch her red handed.
This is what always happen in our society, am not a violent person and do not even know how to lay a hand on a woman, and she knows that and taking advantage of it to pass her boundary. Here she is always the aggressor, trying to intimidate me. This kind of thing has been happening in our society, but people, including the Police will say go home home and settle, I came here to make official complaint so that if anything happen to me tomorrow, the world will know that it was not an accident but what this wicked woman has been planning to do that she has finally succeeded in doing. This kind of thing has happened in several places, instead of the relatives to encourage the couples to divorce and save the situation of untimely death, they will ask them to go and settle and they will go home and be living like cat and rat and one day one of them will kill the other and then the relatives and family members who asked them to patch the relationship at all cost will now regret it and then it will be too late.”
He narrated further that: “Look at the recent incident that happened in the past, she came from work around 8.30 pm in the evening and was having her bath in the bathroom when her phone rang, because I have this technique of speaking in different voices like women, I picked the call with a female voice pretending she was the one answering the call, but the man on the other side called her my love, saying I hope your husband is not around, please step into the toilet so that we can discuss something, but when the man suspected that the voice may not be that of my wife, he hung up and after some days when my wife realized what happened, she started making troubles that I always pick her calls and spy on her all the time.
This is the kind of nonsense I go through in my house everyday and week, either she picks her call and rush into the toilet and will be heard in a low tune telling the caller on the other side that I love you too, or she will cut the call so that nobody will suspect her. This was not the case before, I totally trusted her, but when I started getting complaints from young ladies warning me to ask my wife to leave their fiances and lovers alone and face her husband, I thought it was a ploy by my enemies to ruin my marriage, but I later realised the stories were true, I have fought with many young men on this matter, but it seem this woman is bent on disgracing and dragging my family name in the mud. I came from a reputable family that may not support divorce, which was why I tried to find a way out of this mess, but since is not working, I think is time we look for a permanent solution, before something bad happens or she infects me with disease.”
At the station, the beautiful young lady in her late thirties looked calm and unruffled over her husband’s allegations, but instead asked that she should be given permission to go outside the station to buy Gala and Fanta for her daughter who is about five years old whom she complained has not eating since she came back from school.
Her action angered some policemen on duty who warned her to stay at a place as they are not her husband who brought her to the station for unruly behaviour.
One of the police women at the counter stated that this is how people brought into the station use one flimsy excuse or the other to disappear from the station before their statement could be taken and the officer on duty will be meant to bear the consequences.
The Police woman who scolded her said,” is it not your husband that brought you here, is he not the father of your baby, does he not know that his daughter has not eaten before bringing you here or do you want to use that one as excuse to escape from here, tell your husband to go and buy biscuit and Fanta for your daughter if she has not eaten.
Another police woman on duty across the counter noted that “there is no kind of case people do not bring here, some funny and unheard cases, especially concerning couples and their sex lives, that is why we ask couples sometimes to bring their family so that we hand them over the case to settle, but if at the end it did not work, they can go for separation and divorce.
On her part before her statement was taken, the wife denied all the allegations leveled against her by her husband.
She accused her husband of having an overbearing influence on her and suspects her every move.
She explained that:“His family knows the kind of person their son and brother is, that all he said here were all lies, he just wants to paint me black before everybody.
Yes we had problem earlier in the day, around 2 am that led to hot exchange of words, which is normal for a husband and wife, but coming here to report me to the police that I wanted to kill him showed that he is a weak man who cannot handle his domestic affairs. What a shame that a man who called himself a husband will drag his wife to the police station alleging threats to his life. So if we had problem in the bedroom over sex, will he come and also report me to the police. I love him and want the marriage to work, but if he is not ready to make this marriage work, am ready for divorce too. Why would I be sleeping around, am I a dog, if he is not satisfying me, I would rather divorce him and look for another person rather than remaining married and having extra marital affairs which the Bible condemns and the society frowns at.”