- I didn’t know I hit her so badly – Husband
A commercial bus operator in Lagos has allegedly brutalised his wife for insulting him and his other wife.
The man, Isiaka Alimi, our correspondent gathered, assaulted his wife, leaving her with a bruised head and broken tooth.
The victim, Risikat Alimi, alleged that since her husband married another wife, he had been assaulting her.
Risikat, a native of Oyo State and a mother-of-three, also alleged that her husband had ceased to cater for her and the children.
The housewife, who still lives with her husband at Ayobo, Alimosho area of Lagos State, said since the new wife joined the family, the bond between her and her husband had snapped.
Recalling how her husband assaulted her recently, the 45-year-old mother of three lamented that she sustained a “deep cut on the head” while her tooth was also knocked off.
Risikat added that she was later sent out of her matrimonial home along with her three children. The eldest child is 10 years old.
She told our correspondent, “My husband was not really like that before. He was a loving father and caring husband, though he was hot- tempered. On some occasions, he had assaulted me. But the situation has become worse since he married the new wife two years ago. He does not care for us again. He hardly pays the children’s school fees and does not provide food for us. Even if I cook, he would not eat it.
“The beating he gave me last month left me with an injury on my head and my tooth got broken. I am fed up.”
Risikat, who is a petty trader, threatened to quit her marriage and stressed that she could no longer endure the abuse by her husband.
She noted that since her husband stopped being responsible for her up-keep and that of their children, she had been bearing the burden alone.
“I have been the one caring for my children since he stopped doing it. I have been paying their school fees, feeding, clothing and other things. So, if I can be doing that with the little business I am doing, I can stay on my own. I don’t want to bear his name, again. I want to get out of this marriage,” she said.
When contacted, Mr. Alimi admitted beating his wife, but he blamed her as the cause of the fight.
He maintained that her attitude forced him to take another wife, noting that before his second wife came in, Risikat was not “playing the role of a good wife any longer. Many times, when I come back from work, Iya Idris (Risikat) would not prepare any food for me. If I tell her to do something, she won’t do it; she is stubborn and lazy; all she does is going from one neighbour to another, chatting. I was tired of her life style; so I was forced to marry another wife. And my religion as a Muslim does not forbid it.”
Alimi, who is a commercial bus operator, denied allegations that he had not been responsible for his family’s up-keep.
“I have always been doing my best in providing for my family. I pay my children’s school fees and buy them things they want,” he said.
When asked why he assaulted his wife and sent her packing, he said, “Since I married my new wife, she has been very jealous. So, that day, she was insulting me and the younger wife. She abused me, my parents, including my work, and the innocent woman that just joined the family. So, I was annoyed and started beating her. I didn’t know I hit her so badly. I eventually took her to the hospital for treatment. But I didn’t send her away. That’s not true.”
Alimi, however, appealed to his wife to return to their matrimonial home, saying, “I don’t want her to leave; I still love her.”
