A photojournalist Francis Abiagan, yesterday said the only language his wife Joy, understands is beating.
Abiagan, who works with Business Day, was accused of beating his wife
and stripping her naked by the campaign Against Impunity and Domestic
Violence.
Abiagan said Joy who he married 10 years ago had made his life
hellish since he brought his indisposed mother to their Ifo, Ogun State
home.
A statement by the group’s spokesman, Gbenga Soloki, said Abiagan was
alleged to have injured his wife and boasted that nothing could happen
to him.
According to Soloki, Abiagan had been assaulting his wife for long with the couple’s family intervening to broker peace.
Abiagan who admitted on telephone that he beat up his wife, said he could not bear the way she treated his mother.
He said: “I have been married for 10 years now. My mother had stroke
and no one was available to take care of her. I brought my mother to the
house and since then, it has been war. My wife hates my mother with
passion. My sin is that I accommodated all her siblings and they have
turned my life into a nightmare.
“My wife has been devising means to deal with my mother. She starved
my mother to the extent that I hired a help, who cooks for her. My wife
was seen dragging my mother on the ground, calling her a witch. I have
been enduring it but I could not bear this last one she did to my
mother.
“My wife threatened the cook I hired not to come. The church has
organised several meetings for us. They begged her to change but she
refused. It is the language she understands I gave to her.”