Kolade Princess Damilola, a freelance writer based in Kogi State has narrated how her mother was being assaulted by her father who works with the state government.
According to her tweet, domestic violence has been on for a while. But the victim, she tweeted, had endured the abusive marriage “mainly because of the husband’s financial buoyancy.”
“I hid my problems so the world won’t know because my father is the only one who sponsors me and my siblings to school, feeding and housing,” Damilola said. “I’m scared of losing these things, my mum also takes all this [sic] pain because of his money. She wants us to become someone big in life and that includes schooling and fathering. My mum gets treated like trash because of a man who doesn’t love her but ended up getting married to her.”
“He threatens to kill her, divorce her and thinks she’s a witch too. Insults her of her illiteracy, how her family are nothing to write home about,” she added.
On October 17, the man descended on his wife again and inflicted her. This forced his daughter, Damilola to expose him online.
“I recorded some of the videos while the beating, shouting and wailing was going on,” she said. “He noticed I was recording and slapped me severally, asking if I was filming. I immediately deleted the videos, but I got some other videos after I collected my phone from him.”
In one of the videos attached to the tweet, the victim could be seen wailing on a bed with several bruises on her body.
‘POLICE HANDLING CASE WITH KID GLOVES’
Damiola explained that the matter was reported to police in Lokoja, the capital of Kogi State. But “police are handling the matter with kid gloves,” she told WikiTimes.
According to her, the police are trying to sweep the matter under the “rug” as they condemned her for taking the matter to social media.
“The police here in Lokoja are trying to sweep the matter under the carpet here, they are blaming me for bringing it online and not attacking why he was beating my mum. My mum is also scared of coming down to the police station to make a statement
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“They just want to end it just like that without doing anything, my dad was in their office talking to them for hours, turning their mind and support towards him. The police are opting to just settle it amicably and they want me to go back home,” she said.
Efforts to reach the spokesman for Kogi Police Command proved abortive as several calls placed bounced back.
THE CULPRIT TO TENDER A PUBLIC APOLOGY BY FRIDAY
The case, however, drew the attention of the Kogi State government as its Commissioner for Women Affairs, Hajiya Fatima Kabir Buba wades in.
Damilola told WikkiTimes that the state government has acknowledged the alleged case of domestic violence in her family.
“This morning after we left the police station, we were able to get in touch with the senior special assistant to the state government who took us to the commissioner’s office,” she disclosed. “After the commissioner’s office carried out an investigation on the matter, they decided my dad will offer a public apology to my mum and the family this coming Friday.”
She also confirmed that the government has promised to carry out a bi-weekly routine check on the family residence to ensure the safety of the children.
When asked about the present condition of the parents and the other family members, Damilola explained that she was scolded for making the story public.
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“I needed help. I had to ask for it,” she said. “I have been living in fear in my own home for too long. I could not look my dad in the eyes. I felt I had tarnished his image. My mother and her maternal uncle even started insisting that I should go ask for his forgiveness. But I won’t,” she affirmed.
She added that the victim had been defensive of her husband, saying it was her fault that she constantly gets maltreated by him.
FATHER REFUSED TO GO HOME
After they left the police station, Damilola said, her father did not go home with his family. He slept at his place of work, Kogi State Specialist Hospital, Lokoja.
“He collapsed at a point, pretending to be sick so he can blackmail my mother again,” said Damilola. “He kept wailing that I had killed him after learning the story had gone viral on social media.”
Damilola, now depressed, said she would pack out from the house, adding that her siblings would be staying back alongside her mother. “We can’t drag her out of the house,” she stated.
