By Josephine Igbinovia
“I need justice. My case was unjustly closed by the police!” That was
the persistent cry of Mary Sunday, a graduate of the University of
Nigeria, Nsukka, on whom a pot of stew and the kerosene stove, upon
which it was boiling, were allegedly thrown at by her fiancé, a serving
officer of the Nigeria Police, Corporal Isaac Gbanwuan.
The
incident, which left Mary with grievous bodily harm including the loss
of her two ears with her upper neck glued to her arms, led to two
surgeries while she needs N5million to undergo another in India.
The victim told
Sunday Vanguard
she was on the verge of being recruited into the police before trouble
began when her fiancé was allegedly diagnosed with low sperm count,
lamenting that she has been unjustly treated by the police and denied
access to justice.
Immediately after alleged attack
As
a result of the medical report, Gbanwuan allegedly became aggressive
and suspicious. An argument which arose from his suspicion of a
telephone call Mary received on August 24, 2012, became the last straw
that broke the camel’s back.
“On our way home from hospital on
that fateful day, an argument ensued over a telephone call I received.
He didn’t want to believe the call was from my sister. The argument
degenerated and Isaac started beating me by the time we got home. When I
could no longer take the kicking and dragging, I tried to escape the
scene and I ran to the second floor of the building where we resided at
Pedro Barracks, Shomolu, Lagos. We had actually done our introduction
and were preparing to get married. He pursued me and I ran to a kitchen
on the second floor to escape. He however broke the kitchen door. In a
fit of rage, he carried the cooking stove of the neighbor, with boiling
stew on it, and poured all the content on my body. The stove exploded,
setting me on fire”, Mary said.
The Lagos State Deputy Police
Public Relations Officer, Mr. Damascus Ozoani, in a newspaper report,
dated February 18, 2013, however cleared Gbanwuan of the allegation on
the grounds that the police had carried out and closed investigation on
the matter.
In the report, the police described the condition of Mary as a self-inflicted one.
“The
allegation that Gbanwuan assaulted Sunday is misleading. This case has
been investigated by the Provost Office of the command. The police have
taken statements from Mary, Gbanwuan and other eye witnesses at the
Pedro Police Barracks. The Lagos State Police Command is not
insensitive. I can tell you that, at this moment, the Commissioner of
Police is interested in this case and has passed instructions to the
Provost to conclude investigations”, Ozoani was quoted as saying.
However,
Mary, who was until June 2013 on admission at the National Orthopaedic
Hospital, Igbobi, Lagos, said the police did not at any time visit her
to get information from her after a complaint was lodged by one of her
relatives. When contacted, Gbanwuan, who did not deny knowing Mary,
refused discussing the subject but rather, referred
Sunday Vanguard to the police headquarters for any details.
Foremost
human rights activist, Dr.(Mrs.)Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, Executive
Director, Women Advocates Research & Documentation Centre-WARDC,
suspects a bias in the matter.
“One would wonder why a woman who
was running for her dear life and seeking help and assistance from
neighbours would suddenly become suicidal and inflict such wanton harm
on herself. Beyond this investigation, Mary has no other option of
redress since the police have closed investigation on her case”, Abiola,
who decried the insensitivity of the police towards issues of domestic
violence, said.
She continued: “We suspect there is an attempt to
subdue the case because of the multiple conflicts of interest associated
with the matter. We believe that the Lagos State Police Command has
been hasty in coming to the conclusion and that the newspaper report
affirms the bias of the police on this matter. We believe that the
response was also to cover up the several violations that take place at
various police barracks. Also, the fact that this abuse took place at
the police barracks, to us, is enough reason for the Lagos police to
cover up. We would have expected that the police would have, in
accordance with the criminal law in the country, subjected Corporal
Isaac to a court of law before an unbiased umpire of this case, so that
justice can be seen as done.”
Abiola, who lamented the continued
violence against women with perpetrators going unpunished, regretted
that several other issues of domestic violence had got stuck at the
police without victims getting justice.
“We’ve written twice to
the Police Service Commission but got no response. We’ve also written to
the Lagos State House of Assembly from whom we’re yet to get an
acknowledgement. To us as human rights activists, we’re getting
convinced that despite its domestic violence laws, the state is not
interested in reducing violence against women. We’re therefore planning
to do a petition to the African Commission and the Convention on the
Elimination of all forms of Violence and Discrimination against Women –
CEDAW, on this matter, to state that the Nigerian government has failed
in the protection of women’s rights.”
