She gave her name as Esther. She is a 27-year-old victim of domestic violence. Esther
told Channels TV on Tuesday that she had been a beaten, battered and
ill-treated in her marriage of seven years. She stayed back because she had
nowhere else to go.
According to Esther, her stepfather’s hostility threw her into a teenage
marriage.
began after my mother remarried 10 years after my father died,” she said.
“My step father does not want to see me. He hates me and my kid brother with a
passion. He keenly shows me hatred to the extent that whenever he was at home,
I couldn’t go into the house, I hung around, and I would not even be able to
sleep in the house.
“Due to this treatment from my stepfather, I had to leave his house since the
condition there was unbearable and I got into a relationship with a man.My life
became a living hell.
“I had no access to anything in the house; when he wanted to go out, he would
disconnect the wires and lock up the refrigerator. He denied me my basic needs
by locking up vital items in the house while he went to work.
“When he was at home, I couldn’t stand in front of him. I couldn’t sit on the
bed or chair unless he asked me to. He would always say I didn’t come to his
house with chair so I couldn’t sit on it.
“I became pregnant for him at 18 and safely put to bed.
“My baby was nine days old when my husband started sleeping with me. I would
complain of pains and he would not care. He would shout at me, tie up my hands
and legs to have sex with me daily.
“I endured all these because I had nowhere to go. I was there until I had two
children for him despite the torture.
“After two more children and three abortions, I knew I had to move on with my
life, else I would die in that house.
“I left the relationship after 7 years,” she said.
Esther and her children currently reside in the Ijora area of the state with
her mother.
Esther advised abused women to speak out as soon as possible, adding that the
only way to break free from the abuse was to break the bond of silence.
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