Domestic violence has become a disturbing issue globally. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said one out of every three women has experienced one form of violence or the other.

In Nigeria, it is a pervasive issue that has continued to be on the increase and affecting the nation.

According to a 2019 survey by the Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics, 30 per cent of Nigerian women aged 15-49 have experienced physical violence, while a shocking 68 per cent have encountered emotional, economic, or sexual abuse.

In November 2023, the Data Manager, Federal Ministry Women of Affairs, Mr. Sunday Agbakaba, stated that Nigeria recorded 27,698 cases of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence between 2020 and 2023.

Agbakaba said this during the train-the-trainers workshop on the use of the Gender-Based Violence (GBV) dashboard and reportage in Umuahia, Abia State capital.

He said the data was obtained since the inception of the GBV National Dashboard between 2020 and October 2023.

Breaking down the figures, Agbakaba said the ministry recorded 1, 145 fatal GBV cases while 393 perpetrators were convicted within the period under review.

Agbakaba said the dashboard also showed 9, 636 open cases; 3, 432 new cases; 1,741 closed cases and 1,895 follow-up cases.

“The dashboard is an innovative central reporting and data visualisation platform for real-time tracking of different types and locations of GBV in the country,” he said.

According to him, the dashboard is designed to enhance SGBV reportage in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

Late last year, Ebonyi State recorded some cases of Gender-Based Violence that led to the loss of lives in various homes across the state.

A man, Chima Eseni, reportedly killed his wife, Ugochukwu Chima, and injured his policeman neighbour in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital for trying to separate a fight between him and the wife.

The incident occurred along Ogbaga Road, Kpirikpiri within the capital city where the man and his wife lived.

Late Ugochukwu and her husband, Eseni, 54 were married for 16 years with three children before the ugly incident.

The couple has been having irreconcilable issues before Eseni allegedly took the life of the woman.

In the midnight, the man allegedly hit the wife and she collapsed. When one of their neighbours, who is a policeman, got wind of it, he rushed to the couple’s house. Eseni who was angry, reportedly attacked him and gave him serious injuries.

Eseni’s wife was taken to the hospital through the efforts of other neighbours and sympathisers, but she passed away in the hospital.

Eseni was subsequently arrested by the police over the incident.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Joshua Ukandu who confirmed the arrest said: “The man physically assaulted the wife. She was taken to the hospital but she gave up the ghost because of the injuries inflicted on her. The man is in our custody.”

It was a downpour of sorrow on Friday, January 31, 2025 when the body of 45-year-old Ugochukwu Chima was laid to rest in her home, Itim in Edda Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

Friends and family members at the funeral described the late Ugochukwu as a loving, lively and easy-going woman with a kind heart, describing the circumstances of her death as excruciatingly painful.

In a funeral oration, the elder brother of the deceased, Justice Iheanachor Chima, who could not hold back his tears, described her sister’s death as both nightmarish and hard to bear.

He lamented: “Ugo, your death is most painful because a man like me violently hit your head repeatedly against the wall, hit your waist with a heavy chair and clubbed you to death with two iron walking sticks with the disconcerting result that you sustained multiple spinal cord injuries. This is too much to bear.”

Another brother of hers, Sunday Omaka Chima, insisted that the family must seek justice over the death of their daughter and sister, stating that such was her sister’s demand before she gave up.

Omaka stressed: “The family must seek justice. Our sister made a death declaration, and it is a very strong evidence to nail whoever has a hand in the circumstances of her death.

“Based on that, if we say we are no longer interested, we would be betraying her. For her to have said before her death that even if she died, we should seek justice, so shall it be. We must look for justice.”

In an interview, the Ebonyi State Coordinator, Gender-based Violence Taskforce, Faithvin Nwanchor and the State Coordinator of the National Human Rights Commission, Christopher Okorie, decried the spate of Gender-Based Violence in Nigeria and Africa in general, describing it as alarming.

Nwanchor, who is the Head of Department, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Response in the State Ministry of Justice, called for concerted efforts from all and sundry to end the ugly menace of GBV in the society which he said affects all sexes.

She noted that whenever a woman or a man suffers GBV in a home, the children are also badly affected physically, mentally and psychologically, and their psyche could be permanently damaged.

She charged women to always speak up when they find themselves in a violent relationship.

“We must be able to read the red flag. When it is no longer working, it is better to leave and live rather than dying,” Nwanchor stated.

Okorie, on his part described death as the highest consequence of GBV.

He said: “Death is the ultimate negative end result of GBV, and that’s why we have been fighting on the side of prevention.”

On the concern about the fate of the children of the deceased if their father is to be finally convicted and incarcerated, Okorie responded: “What I have to say is that it is better to be fatherless than to have a murderous and irresponsible father, if at all it is proved at the end that it was the action of the man that led to the death.”

In a funeral sermon titled: “Let not your heart be troubled”, the Mid-East Synod Moderator of the Presbyterian church of Nigeria, Right Reverend Ibiam Orji, admonished Christians to always surrender their concerns to God who has answers to all human questions and confusions.

A Magistrate Court in Abakaliki, the state capital, had ordered the remand of Eseni for allegedly killing his wife of over 16 years in a bout of domestic violence.

Appearing in court for the first time since arrest by the police, the accused did not take his plea as the presiding Magistrate, Chinedu Agama only went through the case file, before adjourning the matter for a report of compliance.

Magistrate Agama had directed that the case file be forwarded to the office of the State Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) for necessary information and legal advice.

The court thereafter ordered that the accused persons be remanded in the custody of the Abakaliki Correctional Service Centre

The prosecution lawyer, Monday Aloh, and Vice Chairperson of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) in Ebonyi State, Sarah Chukwu spoke to journalists on what transpired during the court session, stating that the prosecution had made necessary applications to the court as required by law.

However, the defence counsel, Chibuzor Onuoha refused to speak to the media on the matter within the court premises.

In Ezza South Local Government Area, a man, Joshua Nwafor also allegedly killed his wife, Charity. The incident occurred in Nsokkara community in the area, the central part of the state.

Nwafor reportedly killed his wife over a tuber of yam.

While Joshua hails from Nsokkara, Charity was a native of Okuzu Ukawu, Onicha Local Government Area of the state.

The couple had been married for 17 years with children.

An eyewitness told Saturday Sun that Joshua brought out a yam to be cooked for the entire family to eat while the wife told him she would not eat a cooked yam but a roasted one. That was the issue that reportedly caused a disagreement between them.

“The man brought out a yam to be cooked for the entire family to eat and the wife told him that she was not going to eat cooked yam, noting instead that she preferred roasted yam. She thereafter went ahead to roast the yam.

“As a result, the man got angry and dragged her into the room, locked the door and beat her till she gave up the ghost”, the eyewitness who did not want his name in print told Saturday Sun.

“I am one of the advocates of one walking out from a marriage instead of dying inside such marriage. Life has no duplicate. No matter how old that marriage is, when it becomes life threatening, please, find your way. Leave very fast and never mind what the people would say,” the eyewitness further stated.

When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Joshua Ukandu said: “This is sad. Let me confirm if it’s being handled by the command, but rest assured that the command will conduct a thorough investigation and charge whoever is found wanting”.

A lawyer with the state Ministry of Justice, Mrs Ijeoma Ajanwachukwu has advocated separation in marriages where there are issues to save couples from deaths arising from domestic violence.

She said separation for the meantime was the way to go when couples’ disagreements in their marriages reach a climax, with threats to life.

She blamed mothers for lapses in their homes and urged them to be alive to their responsibilities, urging them to learn to raise their children properly.

“If your daughter who is in a marriage comes to you as her mother in your husband’s house to narrate to you what she has been passing through, don’t advise her to remain in the marriage, especially if she is being maltreated by her own husband.

“Don’t tell her that marriage is all about endurance and that if you open your mouth and tell her what your own husband, who is her father, has been doing to you, that she would not believe it. Most of us mothers do this and our daughters who are in marriages will remain in hell in their marriages. At times, they will be brought back to us as corpses or we will be called to come and carry their corpses because they are dead.

“I am not canvassing divorce in any marriage, but my own is, let the woman’s life remains while the problem in her marriage is looked into for resolution.

“If the woman and the husband have reached the stage that a life can be lost in their marriage, the best thing is for the two of them to get separated for the meantime. Many couples do this and after a while, they will realise their mistakes and make up and become husband and wife again. But at that particular time, the man and the woman don’t agree. If you force them, somebody will die.

“As a lawyer, I have handled cases where a woman killed her husband and where a husband killed his wife. It has happened several times. But we women, we have failed the society. We mothers, we have failed the society because we are not living up to expectations.

“It is the duty of a mother to know what is happening in her home. We always stay in our home and our house helps are impregnated. The one we have learned now is when the house help get impregnated, she is moved to another place where she would deliver the baby, and then the baby is sold,” she told our correspondent. (Saturday Sun)