5 years after losing her husband, Ngozi Peter picked the bits and pieces of her life together. As a young lady, she sought love again and got involved in a relationship with Mr. Chinedu Ndubuisi. But rather than get the bliss she desired, she got blisters, scars and wounds from an alleged physical assault from her lover.
According to Ms Peter, she met Mr. Ndubuisi, an air-conditioner technician, when she decided to move on with life by relocating to Lagos after living as a widow for half a decade. Mr. Ndubuisi then came into her life with the promise to marry her. He asked her to move in with him because he wanted to marry her. in a bid to give the relationship a chance, the widow moved in with the young man in his one-room apartment, at 8, Sanu Street, Ikeja, Lagos.
They lived together for two years while Ndubuisi promised to marry her when she gets pregnant for him. When she eventually got pregnant for Ndubuisi, he allegedly started demanding for money, and the documents of some of the landed properties left for Ms Peter by her late husband, giving that as a condition to start their wedding process. According to Ms Peter, she gave him over N100, 000 to start their wedding arrangement but insisted they must be legally married first before she could hand over her land documents to him. Her refusal to surrender the documents seemed to have gotten him incensed, she added.
However, he bottled up his anger until the midnight on 6th April when he exploded with fury.
“Because of my eight-week pregnancy, I suspended my clothes business at Igando,” the Amorka, Imo State born widow told Saturday Sun. “But he stopped bringing money to assist me or support my upkeep. Still, I was using my savings to prepare food in the house.
“On that fateful day, I prepared his favourite meal. When he came back around 7pm, he said he won’t eat the food and left the house. He returned around 11pm in the night. Again he left saying that I should leave the door unlocked. Since I was not sure of when he would return, I locked the door and waited for him. He came back around midnight, and I went to open the door.
He got angry that I locked the door and started abusing me. He asked me why I should lock the door, saying I don’t have any value since I refused to bring money or my land documents. I told him the documents are not with me. He shouted at me calling me a liar and that I don’t want to bring money for our marriage.
He said that I should be grateful that he wants to marry me. I told him it’s a taboo in my village for a woman to pay her own bride price. I said that he should make up the remaining sum if he’s serious about settling down with me.
“At that point, he descended on me. He slapped me, asking why I dared talk back at him. I asked him what I’ve done to him but he kept beating me. He then told me that he was out to give me the biggest disgrace of my life that night. He tore my wrapper, and pushed me outside the house. I didn’t fight him because I was trying to hide my nakedness with my hands.
But he kept beating me and grabbed my throat attempting to strangle me. None of the male neighbours came out because they knew I was naked. It was only one neighbour that mustered the courage to intervene with his wife.
The woman brought her clothes to cover my body. While Chinedu went about breaking every property I bought and kept in his house. “After destroying my gas cooker, laptop and other valuables, he came back again and started beating me.
He dragged me on the floor trying to strip me naked again. I ran out of the compound into the streets. He chased me with an iron rod that he used to flog me on the head. At that point, some street boys staying under the bridge at Awolowo road rushed at him.
But he freed his hands and grabbed my hand trying to drag me back to the house. The street boys refused insisting that I should not go back to the house with him if I wanted to live. One of them gave me N200 to get a taxi and run to a nearby police station.
I was taken to the Police Station, and it was there that I collapsed, and found myself at the Accident and Emergency (A & E) Unit of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH).”
Saturday Sun leant that policemen rushed her to the hospital around 2am Thursday last week and allegedly abandoned her there.
She was there in a state of coma at the A&E Unit until a certain Mr. Samson Ezeh, a member of the Deeper Life Church saw her lying unattended to and decided to assist her.
According to Mr Ezeh, he had witnessed three people die at the A&E and was spurred to do something to avoid Ms Ngozi from also giving up the ghost. “I feel that God used me to help save Ms Peter,” Mr. Ezeh told Saturday Sun.
“I came to LUTH at about 3am to get emergency medical attention for my cousin who started screaming at the middle of the night.
But when we got there he suddenly became well again. Then I noticed how people where just dying at the A&E. I watched one die, few minutes later I saw another person die and before long the third person died. I couldn’t bear the sight.
Then I noticed Ms. Peter lying lifeless there at the A&E. I was moved to try and help out. I approached one of the medical officials asking how I could assist. And they gave me a list of items to buy so that they can commence treatment. I went out and bought all of them that early morning and didn’t leave until around 8am.”
Ms Ngozi was under admission at the hospital for almost a week. When Saturday Sun visited her, she appeared traumatized but still calm even with the scars of wounds and bruises all over her face, body, hands, knees and elbows. “These ones you see are very minor wounds when compared to the scars of wounds she carries at the back, butts, thighs and other private region”, said Mr Ezeh who has been footing her medical bills in the hospital.
The widow stated that she was stranded at LUTH because her phone was taken from her by Ndubuisi preventing her to call her parents or any of her relations. “I feel bad because my family would be disappointed in me for getting involved in this kind of incident.
They may think I was bewitched because they all believe that I’m living a comfortable life here in Lagos. I’m the only daughter of my parents. I have three brothers; one is based abroad while the other two live in Abuja. I was married to a Ghanaian sailor that loved me very much. We have a daughter together.
But he died in a shipwreck. My daughter who is 14 year old studies abroad. I remained a widow for five years, and really wanted to move on with life and settle down again. That was why I got into a relationship with Ndubuisi.
I still can’t believe how he treated me. Up till now, I still feel pains from the punching he gave me on the chest. I still bled as at yesterday because of the miscarriage of my eight weeks pregnancy,” she alleged.
Saturday Sun also learnt that Ngozi has been referred to Yaba Psychiatry Hospital for medical examination to rule out fears of probable brain damage due to head injuries. “When she came out of coma, she was acting and saying strange things.
It is apparent that she is traumatized by the beatings she got, but we want her to go see a neurosurgeon, to make sure the hits she got on the head didn’t damage any part of her brain”, said a medical official that pleaded anonymity.
According to Ngozi, her biggest concern now is how to move her belongings out of Ndubisi’s place. She has petitioned the Area F Police Command, Ikeja to seek justice.
Source:Saturday Sun
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