Is
it a crime to fall in love? That is exactly the question that Mrs. Folasade
Esther (surname withheld by us) has asked herself a million times. She
has been seeking an answer after her heartthrob, who works with an oil company
in Akwa Ibom State, reportedly turned his back on her and their two children to
marry a lover he met on Facebook. Daily Sun gathered that when Folasade, a
physically challenged lady, got married, most people thought it was a marriage
made in heaven.
Unfortunately,
the one-time happy union later turned to hell on earth. Although the bride
counts herself blessed for having two lovely children, she does not hide the
fact that the six-year-old marriage had brought her more tears than joy.
Folasade
said her husband, who she met 15 years ago in Lagos, suddenly broke his marital
vows after battering her for years. The proof of her agony could be seen on her
body, full of indelible scars from bruises allegedly inflicted on her by her
husband. Folasade said she bore her sorrows in uncomplaining meekness, casting
her hopes on the Christian assurance that all would be well again. More after cut:
To
her disappointment, things got worse. Her heroic endurance was shattered
recently when the father of her children fell into the arms of another woman on
the social interactive site, Facebook. Since then, things fell apart, as he
allegedly subjected her to rounds of beatings and starvation.
Grieved
by the incident, the young lady recounted with tears how she laboured for five
days in the hospital for the delivery of her baby, regretting that her husband
neither showed up nor called. She said his uncaring attitude at that time was a
clear message that he had something up his sleeves.
“He
never called to ask after my condition. I was later transferred to the General
Hospital, Uyo and they had to carry out a caesarean section on me. By then, the
baby was so weak and it passed away the next day,” she lamented. With songs of
sorrow on her lips, Folasade’s hypertensive condition has deteriorated so badly
that she has to live on drugs. Struggling with a crutch to support her disabled
leg in the face of her present health crisis and at the same time fending for
her two under-aged children has left the 36-year-old lady truly traumatised.
She
told the reporter that she had to wash her dirty linen in public because her
husband made her life so miserable. On whether they were live-in-lovers, she
said they got married in the law court six years ago. “We were in courtship for
several years. During the courtship, I got pregnant for him and gave birth to
my son. Later, we wedded legally at the Akwa Ibom registry in 2007, about six
years ago.
I
have already had my son before that court marriage. My son will be 10 next
month. After the court marriage, I gave birth to a baby girl,” she said.
Folasade said trouble slipped into her marriage when her husband started dating
a strange woman on Facebook. According to her, the new lover was a divorcee and
mother of four children. “Our problem started when they started online dating.
Last time, I went to give birth to my baby at UK.
That
was about three years ago. I noticed that anytime I travelled, the lady would
come over to my marital home and stay with my husband. I have been noticing
other changes in my husband’s attitude towards me. So, I started suspecting my
husband.
It
is a case of a dog that wags its tail whenever it sees you, but all of a
sudden, it will see you and start barking. I knew that something was wrong,”
she said. Folasade said her curiosity to find out the problem from her husband
earned her merciless beatings.
The
case got worse whenever she summoned courage to complain to his friends and
relatives, pleading with them to intercede on her behalf. Such step, she said,
won her more beatings and the stoppage of the N30,000 monthly feeding allowance
for the entire family.
Folasade
said she did everything to make her marriage work and possibly win back her
husband’s love but her matrimonial home kept falling apart.
She
said her husband, at a point, abandoned her and the kids for about a month,
leaving them without any money for their feeding. “When these troubles began, I
called some of his bosses to explain, pleading with them to talk to him. But
anytime I called his friends to help us make peace, things would get worse. I
noticed that if his family tried to talk to him, he would never listen. He is
the breadwinner of the house, so, nobody can fault his actions. If they don’t
support him, then, he will starve them too.”
The
aggrieved mother said the height of her agony came on May 15 when he turned her
to a punching bag. Aside battering her, she narrated how she became a public
spectacle when her husband allegedly tore her clothes to shreds and threw her
outside the gates of their house at night.
She
had to seek refuge at the Police Station, Eket, she said. According to her, she
reported the matter to the police at Eket, while some Good Samaritans provided
clothes to cover her nudity. “The police came to arrest him but he refused to
open the door.
The
way he beat me, I couldn’t see anything, not even my phone. I was tattered when
I got to the police station at Eket. The police came back again but he refused
to open the door. He later called the DPO to complain that armed robbers came
to his house to rob him. He saw the officers that came in police uniform but he
turned the whole story around, calling them armed robbers,” she said.
When
he finally showed up at the Police Station, Folasade said the Divisional Police
Officer (DPO) ordered him to take her to the hospital for treatment.
But
she said he only drove her home and left for work. She said her agony worsened
in the night when his lover came to their house with another lady and they
slept with her husband in the bedroom. Folasade said she and her children had
to sleep in another room. But she was yet to experience the worst.
According
to her, she was returning from the hospital on Friday, May 17, where she had
gone to treat her wounds, when she sighted a big truck in their compound. Her
husband, aided by his Facebook lover and the woman’s sister, allegedly removed
every item in the house. Not even her personal belongings or those of her
children were spared, she said. Folasade said she kept her distance to avoid
further trouble. And when the truck drove off, she walked into an empty house
where, in her words, she wailed in agony. When it dawned on her that her tears
could not restore her lost fortunes, she hurriedly went to pick her children
from school and they left their home empty handed.
“There
is nothing I brought out of my house. Not even my underwear were left for me. I
lost everything. My children had nothing to wear expect the school uniform they
wore to school on that day. It is as bad as that,” she said.
When
our reporter contacted the husband on the telephone, he said he wouldn’t join
issues with his wife on the pages of a newspaper. Further attempts to persuade
him to open up met a brick wall, as he abruptly hung up.
Although
the husband has chosen to be silent, Folasade is shouting at the rooftop. She
is calling on human rights groups, association of physically challenged
persons, Ministry of Women Affairs and other relevant agencies to fight for
her.
With
her two children by her side, the task of building from ground zero seemed
daunting. But she had vowed never to allow the custody of her two children in
the hands of a strange woman that lured her husband away from their marital
home. “I am handicapped. There is little I can do. He should take care of his
children.
He
should provide money for the training of these children. I want to beg human
rights groups, the association of physically challenged persons and concerned
activists to save me from the hands of this man that subjected me to all these
abuses over the years.
He
turned me to a punching bag, starving me and throwing my children and I out of
the house. He believed there is nothing I have or that there is nothing I can
do. But I have God,” she said.
the story is not complete until we heard from the husband, cos most of the accusation is not right. A right woman in her senses will not pack ur underwear to a new house?
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