Wife of the Abia State Governor, Mrs. Priscilla Otti has expressed horror at the degree of bodily harm done to a woman by her spouse, Mr. Lawrence Uzor, in a failed attempt to gouge out the victim’s eyes for ritual purpose.
The man also inflicted matchet cuts on his landlady, Madam Lovejane Nwaiwu, who had rushed in to rescue the abused wife on hearing her distress cry for help.
At the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Umuahia where she went to sympathise with the two women, Mrs. Otti said she was deeply saddened at the sight of Mrs. Amarachi Lawrence, writhing in pains on hospital bed with her eyes barely sitting in their sockets.
“This is a terrible case of violence, attempted murder and abuse”, the governor’s wife said, adding that she would ensure that Mrs. Lawrence got the needed medical care and protection against domestic violence going forward.
The Abia first lady had recently signed the compact agreement on Gender-based Violence (GBV) with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) alongside other wives of governors and Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu.
Mrs. Otti, having been confronted with this ugly incident of GBV, called for tougher action on perpetrators of domestic violence and other forms of GBV in the state.
She promised that GBV responses front desk and team would take proper actions on such incidents and commended the Umueze Ibeku community for their response and support to the two women victims of GBV.
The Abia first lady stated that the state GBV Response Team would be partnering communities to prevent incidents of GBV and to bring to justice anybody involved in perpetrating it.
She made cash donations for the treatment and upkeep of the two victims.
The Director, Medical Services, Mrs. Aisha Onyemaobi, had told Mrs. Otti that reports indicated that Mrs. Lawrence was deeply asleep when the husband woke her up and started cutting her.
“There was an attempt to gouge out her eyes and she had genital mutilation”, she said.
The perpetrator of the violence, Uzor, is said to be an aluminum worker from Umuchieze in Bende Local Government, but residing with his wife at Adiele Estate in Umueze Ibeku, Umuahia.
In her account of the ugly incident, Madam Nwaiwu said that it happened at about 1.00am on Sunday when she heard Mrs. Lawrence shouting for help as her husband was trying to pluck out her eyes.
She pointed out that, prior to the incident, she had heard Uzor praying very loud, shouting “odogwu, odogwu” (an invocation of greatness), adding that she had never heard the couple praying like that before.
The landlady said that at about 1.00am she heard Mr. Uzor’s wife, who is a teacher with one of the foremost private schools in Umuahia, shouting, “mummy, I’m being killed. I opened my door, came out and peeped through their bedroom window and saw the man pressing down his wife with a knife in his hands, trying to use the knife to remove her eyes.”
Nwaiwu said she tried to rouse neighbours to wake up and save Mrs. Lawrence from being killed but her efforts didn’t yield the desired results hence she rushed in to offer help to the helpless woman.
She further narrated that she entered the sitting room of the couple and “started knocking on the door and suddenly, he (Uzor) opened the door still holding the knife. He tried giving me cuts on my head but I defended it with my hand.”
Madam Nwaiwu added that the aggressor ended up cutting her hand and dealing matchet blows to her face and mouth forcing “many of my upper teeth out”.
However, she managed to escape and ran back to her room, locked herself in and made calls that eventually led to the arrival of the community’s vigilante team, who arrested Uzor and took the injured women to the FMC.
Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo
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