31 year old Bimbo Danju has explained why she did it. She told Saturday Punch...
“Please, kindly judge this by yourself. As a pregnant woman, will I willingly attempt to cut off my husband’s penis? I ordinarily would not have said anything. I did not realise this will escalate to this stage. The case is being handled by my lawyer at the moment.
“My husband is not a hot-tempered man but he gets angry once in a while. He lied that he washes my clothes. He only did that once or twice when I was ill. We had a disagreement that day and he beat me up. My mother came to the house and took away our son.
“Without telling anybody, I went to my hospital and was treated. I did not tell him. But when I got home, he continued to harass me. He said I must ensure his son was returned to the house. Continue...
“I was so tired and I went to sleep. But in the middle of the night, he woke me up and asked me again to produce his son. We started fighting and he was beating me. In order to escape his beating, I had to hold his penis. I wanted him to leave me alone. I held on to it until I had a chance to escape.”
“Please ask him, which certificate is he even talking about? When I married my husband, he told me he graduated from the Ogun State University, Ago-Iwoye, but that he had an accident some time ago, in which his certificates were burnt,” she said.
“When I married him, he did not have a job. He said he was working on a CD and all the money I made, I spent on him.”
Speaking with Saturday PUNCH, her husband told a different story.
He said, “My pastor had advised me against marrying her because of an encounter he had with her. Before we got married, in a meeting with Bimbo, my pastor said he asked her about her past and my wife said, ‘How dare you!’
“Of course, I did not believe my pastor at the time because I was in love. But now, I rue the day I met that woman.”
Lekan alleged that his wife had been behaving strangely since he lost his job. He stated that he had done everything he could to ensure that she remained happy.
“I wash her clothes including her underwear. Even without a job, I ensure that the proceeds of my gospel music CD are used to take care of her and our son,” he said.
The apartment Lekan shared with his wife is a mini-flat. Asked who paid for the apartment, the man said the house belonged to his father.
According to him, he was living in a rented apartment in Ikorodu before relocating to his father’s house in Surulere so that it would be easier for his wife to get to work.
Lekan explained that Bimbo was a good woman at the time.
He said, “I married her legally. We did a church wedding, went to court and did the traditional wedding. But when I lost my job, I realised that after a little disagreement, she would rain abuses on me and my family.
“She would sometimes destroy things in the house. There was a time we had a disagreement and she chased me down the street with a stick. During another disagreement, she took my HND certificate to the end of the street and dropped it beside a gate. Neighbours had to plead with her to bring it back.”
He narrated to Saturday PUNCH how his wife attacked him.
“That fateful day, I was washing my wife’s clothes. She reminded me that she needed some money for foodstuffs and I told her that God would provide for us. Later, she came out of the house and said she had eaten noodles and had fed our son.
“When I finished with the clothes, I was so tired because the clothes were many. I ate the leftover of her noodles. There were about three-spoonfuls left.”
Lekan alleged that that did not go down well with his wife who said she still wanted to eat the leftover.
He said he had to go to the street to buy bread for her since she said she was still hungry.
He further explained that he had to go out shortly after to get some money from a salesman who handles his CD sales.
“I came home and informed my wife that I got some money from my CD. She told me that she would like to eat wheat and white soup which I usually buy for her from a restaurant. I bought that for her,” he said.
By that time, Lekan said the only thing he had eaten that day was the leftover noodles. He said the remaining money from the CD sales had been used to buy things needed in the house.
But his elder sister who had a shop nearby was to later give him N500 when she noticed that he did not look like he was feeling well.
“I went out to buy rice and when I came in and she saw me eating that, she flared up. She said I lied to her that I had no money. She was shouting but I pleaded with her to calm down so that my people around would not hear. She replied that it would not be well with the people. She abused my relations and parents.
“The following day, a Sunday, I swallowed my pride. I woke up and asked which clothes she would like to wear to church so that I could iron it with mine. When she did not answer, I left for church but came back after the workers’ meeting.
“I got home and saw her preparing jollof rice but I went out to buy N60 bread and N40 beans. Trouble started again when she saw me eating that. She said I refused to give her money but I was buying food to eat. She said, ‘Before I say anything now, you will go and complain to your useless family.’ That was when I told her that it was her whole family that was useless. Had I known, I would have kept quiet. She took the plate of beans and poured it on my head.”
But Lekan said even though many men would have pummelled such a woman, he feared he might kill her in anger. The matter died down, or so it seemed.
Around 2am, Lekan said he received a sudden and painful knock that woke him up from sleep and realised that it was from his wife.
“I knew she had decided to start her trouble again. But I did not in my wildest imagination think that she could do what she did next.
“Before I realised what she was doing, I felt a sharp pain in my manhood. I touched it and blood was gushing out. I screamed and my immediate thought was, ‘Is this the way I would die?’”
Lekan pointed to a kitchen knife in a corner of his room. He said it was the weapon his wife used.
The wound inflicted on Lekan’s manhood was deep but it had been stitched after he was rushed to the hospital by neighbours.
Lekan said he is not pressing charges against his wife.
Culled from Punch
