National Wire About Nigerians, Nigerian Business and Other Stories
… I need my N5.7m – wife
By: Okosun Dennis
It was a bitter narration laced with intermittent sobbing; sometimes hard to fight words back as a young mother of four children gave a chilling tale of brutalization, public embarrassment, humiliation, castigation and spurious allegations she suffered from her husband she married under durex in 2001.
Jennifer Uchenna said her marriage to Uchenna Innocent was “a cat-and-rat relationship” . At the slightest opportunity, she was kicked, slapped and hit with anything in sight by a man she married innocently as a virgin, after being brought to Lagos by her elder sister.
According to her, she married Uchenna when she had a Senior Secondary School Certificate and was working at Goodies Supermarket Victoria Island. Her naivete coupled with her sister’s “command and control” made innocent take advantage of her the day Uchenna took her to a hotel where he deflowered her at the age of 16.
Due to her extreme innocence as a virgin, her first intercourse led to pregnancy hence she got married to him thereafter. It was learnt that when the marriage happened, Uchenna was a stack illiterate who could neither read nor write.
From living in a shanty house often referred to as “Kpako house”, God elevated them and relocated to Surulere, where fortune beckoned at them. She started a small scale business that blossomed into Health Paramedics Service located at Bode Thomas.
Unfortunately for Jennifer, she never knew she was married to a “monster with anger problem”.
“He has anger problem as he hits and beats me to a pulp at the slightest opportunity. I got married at a tender age. I actually don’t know how old I was then because my sister brought me to Lagos. Since then, I have been in the abusive marriage. In 2007, I went back to my sister to tell her that I was no longer interested in the marriage. My people frowned at it and said I must go back to my husband that he was everything. Also, he came to beg and brought me back to Lagos,” she recounted.
My Innocence Violated
My intention of relocating to Lagos with my sister was to work and be better educated hence I got a job at Goodies Supermarket Victoria Island, Lagos.
While speaking with our correspondent, Jennifer, a Higher National Diploma graduate said because of her unwanted pregnancy that resulted, from her first encounter her family deferred the formal traditional rite until after delivery.
Her pregnancy thus became her albatross. Since then, Uchenna kept postponing formalizing the traditional wedding till date.
Unfortunately for her, her sister who ordinarily should have defended her, turned against her with spurious accusations .
“I told him to wed me; he insisted I hold on. His people never accepted me for a wife; even when I came with pregnancy. Though the father and the stepmother came for the marriage rite but the elder sister was the black horse and stood against it. Mrs Fidelia insisted I wouldn’t enter the family.”
Setting Up Business From Nothing
Soon after she became pregnant, the husband ordered her to stop work. She wasn’t happy.
“He stopped me from working because he doesn’t want me to genuflect or answer anybody “sir” and I stopped. He didn’t open a shop or establish any business enterprise for me.
“We were just living from hand to mouth. I buy firewood to sell to enable us eat. However, in 2003, God elevated us and left the shanty in Victoria Island for Surulere, where we rented a flat and started a business with travelling agency and made giant strides. Despite the struggle to survive, I still took beatings even with my pregnancy.”
“At the slightest argument, he strikes. If I went to Church, he complains saying “my prayers doesn’t cross the roof.” He stopped going to church and insisted I stop too. He enjoyed abusing men of God and doesn’t see anything good about them.
“I am a Minister in Redeemed Christian Church of God. One day, he beats me and I fainted. Initially, I wasn’t curious taken pictures of such lacerations in my body until the last beating I had in 2021.
“I struggled to open a supermarket as a Distributor at Trade Fair having borrowed money from a Micro finance bank. It was profitable and two years later, he asked me to close it and start another business with him because he was into Multi Level Marketing (MLM).
“As my husband whom I had children for, I felt nothing was too much to sacrifice to make the union work. I never knew it was one of the worst mistakes of my life. I sold everything in piecemeal, including the shop and gave him the money hence I couldn’t fathom how much that amounted to. As I sold, I remit to him,” she explained.
Asked how progressive was the MLM business, she explained they had an intensive training with a Chinese company to enable them service the clinic (VineHealth Parademics Service) which was a huge success.
“We were now getting supplies of drugs from India; registered the company with CAC and I was a shareholder and it boomed. Again, cunningly, he refused to make me a signatory to the account.”
The business took him to India for one month while I ran the full clinic and had a scan machine for patients. “During his absence, I managed the clinic with other workers we employed. I paid the workers from the money he transfered for that purpose but I wasn’t on any stipend. We spent between N8m – N9m to formalize the franchise but realized something went wrong; a thing I told him to find out before getting started.
“The business got messed up and the Indian company asked us to remove their products from our website. Between 2015 – 2017, everything crumbled. Hunger crept into our home. Unfortunately for me, I became his punching bag everytime.”
Foray Into Real Estate Business
Jennifer again, began to struggle to make ends meet. After the fumbling and wobbling, she found a friend who introduced her to Real Estate business which she started and recorded a monumental success. “I became the breadwinner of the family again.
“It got to a stage that the woman that owes the company encouraged me to get a car to avoid trekking while taken clients to site. I accumulated some commission with her and she gave me N2.5m to get a car. I transferred the money to him on the 6th April, 2016 to buy a car and he registered it as “Mr & Mrs.”
I didn’t hide anything from my husband. Sometimes, we drive to Ogun State together to inspect and sell properties to clients.
“In other to revive our former business, In 2017, I borrowed my husband N2m and later, another N2m to invest into it. One day, he said he needed more money to invest into the business and asked me to sell my car and give him the money. When I refused, he descended on me and beat me to a stupor. I was forced to sell the car for N1.7m and transfered the money to him on the 7th August, 2017 through our company: VineHealth Parademic Service.”
She further reiterated that selling the car hunt her. She was sacked by the company. “I was sacked. They told me that the car makes it possible for me to make money for the company hence they added money to buy the car, and I sold it because of your husband,” she emphasized.
“Even though the business started, he denied me access. But in 2019, he asked me to come and interview one lady as auxiliary nurse. After the interview, she resumed work. I pleaded that I wanted to start work to build up the place, he denied me again. By 2020, I told him I wasn’t going to stay at home any longer.
Affairs With The Nurse – Ngozi
Curiously, Jennifer began to notice some negative manifestations in her husband which spurred her to investigate. To her chagrin, she discovered that her husband was having a romance with the married woman – Ngozi, whom they employed as auxillary nurse.
“I knew it at first through text messages. Initially, I didn’t disclose my findings until I caught them red-handed.
“Having realized that my husband was now getting home late from work, I suspected the hand of monkey in the soup. “He closes 5pm, all of a sudden, he started coming late 6-7pm. One day, I went with my son to his office unannounced; without knocking at the door, I barged into the office.
“True to my suspicion, they were locked together, holding themselves in amorous kissing. I brought out my phone to record, he clamped on me and started beating me and the woman, Ngozi joined. In the melee, I succeeded and videoed him but he grabbed the phone and broke it.
“I called the lady by name: Ngozi, how much do you need? I want to pay you off and leave the company. My husband retorted: Who am I to give directives? He called me prostitute and all demeaning names. At that point, I brought out the text message and read it. Ngozi, started crying, begging me that my husband lured her into the amorous relationship.
Part of the text message read, “Goodnight, I will forever love you.” And my husband replied: “My love, I will take care of you the way a man has never taken care of you in life.” I was downcast. I couldn’t just fathom why my husband would be sleeping with another man’s wife?
Traced Ngozi’s Husband
Unperturbed, she traced Ngozi’s husband, got him and reported her infidelity and explained how she had contributed to the ruination of her home. The man was said to have been shocked but not without deep sense of suspicion as his wife, with three kids for him, had equally been coming home late from work.
To buttress her claim, the man asked for evidence and she smartly showed him the text messages. “He said that he has noticed it as the wife has been coming late from work. He asked if there was any evidence? I show him the text message. He called the wife, Ngozi and she didn’t come back till after a week because my husband rented a house for her.”
My Husband’s Arrest By Police & Allegation of Stolen Car
When the maltreatment became unbearable as I was constantly beaten and starved, to the extent he spat on me and denied my children from given me food, Jennifer went became depressed.
She further explained as that was not enough, he denied her sexual relationship for two years. Later, he sent her out of the house. Before she left, she demanded for settlement of her loan of N4m and the N1.7m sold from her car.
“Before I packed, I reported to the Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA) at Ikeja and they asked what I need. When he was summoned, he agreed borrowing the money and was asked to settle me since he didn’t want the marriage again. Unfortunately, everything they told him to do, he didn’t fulfil it.
“Before I knew it, he wrote a petition against me to Panti Police Station that I stole his car and maliciously took away his son.
I was invited and in response, my lawyer wrote counter petition how he squandered the money I invested in the company that I started. Based on the facts I presented, he was arrested at Panti but later bailed.
“However, the police asked I bring the car to them since it wasn’t registered in my name which I did. It was when my sister was invited that led to the explanation on how he impregnated me at 16 years old and later married me that made the police to rearrest and charged him for defilement and marrying a minor.
Accusation of Infidelity
In order to save his face, he resorted to blackmail, accusations of infidelity, stealing his car and eloping with his son. She explained that those accusations were unfounded and a figment of his imagination in order to hide his dubious acts.
“He accused me of different things. The pictures on my phone were snapped long time ago and he saw them when I gave my phone to him for Uber operation. They were people I once worked with in an Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). I hadn’t any amorous relationship with them. He just cooked it up. They were my colleagues and most of those pictures were taken when we visited motherless babies home to donate gifts.”
Jennifer further cleared the air that “Anything triggers problem. Mere seeing her discuss with somebody is a problem. He sent me away from the house after beating and inflicting injuries on my body. If I entered the house, he would spit on me.”
Stops Our Children From School
She further narrated how the erstwhile husband has convinced the two eldest children to abandon their degree education at the Abia State University, despite her efforts to secure them admission.
“After his arrest, he convinced them to come back to Lagos and asked them not to go back to school as the certificate is rubbish. As I speak to you, my children are not in school. They missed their second semester exams that would have taken them to 300 levels.
At the moment, it was learnt that Uchenna Innocent has been remanded at Ikoyi prisons awaiting meeting bail conditions after he was charged to the Magistrate Court.
On whether she nurses any animosity against her family for crashing her marriage and if she regretted the relationship: “My family dictated to me and everything they said was obeyed. They would always tell me that my husband is everything and even when the relationship started developing cracks, they compelled me to stay back.
“I regretted the marriage because it was abusive, violent as peace evaporated. However, he remains the father of my children and I leave the rest to God.”
