MARCEL MBAMALUOn December 14, 2023, a viral online video surfaced showing a man later identified as Mr Ekere Ebong, assaulting his wife, triggering calls for justice for the woman. The woman was half-naked, and presented a bloodied body, with neighbours and sympathizers rebuking and warning Mr Ekere Ebong for serial wife assault. As a result, Mr Ebong, a lawyer, was arrested by the police, and has been facing prosecution for domestic violence against his wife, Mrs Ekemini Ekere Ekong,
But in a curious twist, no sooner did the police arraign Mr Ebong than the battered woman, Mrs Ekemini Ekere Ebong, began to plead with the police and other interested parties to abandon the case following a settlement by her family and relatives. On December 20, 2023, she released a public statement stating the serious mental and emotional ordeal she had suffered with her two children following her report to the police on the assault.
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Mrs Ekere Ebong made her wish formal through an Affidavit of withdrawal of complaint against her husband sworn to at the High Court of Akwa Ibom State, Uyo Judicial Division. In the affidavit, Mrs Ebong acknowledged her complaint to the Nigerian Police B division, Ewet, Uyo for mediation and arrest of the situation. She then added that “on the 15th of December 2023 I am in company of my family member’s friends my family’s family members and extended relatives intervened and we all met with the divisional police officer of the Ewet housing police station.” Based on her reference to the amicable resolution of the matter, she said “that the recent arrest of Barr Ekere Ebong on the earlier complaint withdrawn unequivocally does not have my imprimatur with due respect to all who have genuine interest for my overall wellbeing”. Mrs Ekere Ebong also made profuse emotional reference to the suffering of her children, who she said have been “ceaselessly crying and wailing to see and stay with their father the breadwinner of their family. The children, she lamented, “have refused to eat for many days now looking for their father”.
However, the actions of Mr Ebong, a legal practitioner, fall within the domain of domestic violence, defined by the World Health Organisation as “behaviour directed towards a family or household member that would cause a reasonable person to feel traumatized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed, or assaulted”. Though there are no direct laws that call domestic violence a crime, some kinds of criminal assault can be adduced, and this is why the police are pressing further with the case.
Section 34 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended states that “every individual is entitled to respect for the dignity of his/her person and accordingly no person shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment”. This section is the bedrock of the Violence Against Person’s Prohibition Act (VAPPA), 2015, which makes similar provisions, but only applicable in the FCT, and Anambra, Bauchi, Enugu, Kaduna and Oyo states, which have passed the law. By implication, not all the states in Nigeria have laws against domestic violence. Section 19 of The VAPPA Act criminalizes physical assault and sets a term of imprisonment not exceeding 3 years or to a fine not exceeding #300,000.00 or both. This is similar to Section 383 of the Criminal Code of Nigeria, which provides a maximum punishment of three years imprisonment if anyone is convicted of assault or occasioning harm.
Once a child is born, it becomes social property, beyond the private decision of a couple to bear the child. It is the same with crime. Once committed or publicly seen to be so planned, crime becomes a public issue, out of the determination of a suspect or their relatives. It is therefore fully understandable why the police are pressing further with the case.
The Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Ohanenye further confirmed this situation when she insisted that Mr, Ekere Ebong, the lawyer in the assault case, will be charged even if his wife doesn’t support it. “Even if the woman decides she doesn’t want her husband to be sued, due to family pressure, the man must face the law as justice will have its way,” Ms Ohanenye insisted on a Sunday, December 17 post on X. The minister acknowledged that Mrs Ekere may be facing family pressure to withdraw the case, but that it was beyond her at the moment. The Minster repulsed at the video, saying: “This remains one of the most insane and unbelievable scenes one has seen in the brutalisation of women.” In like manner, Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State has expressed the resolve of his government to assist Mrs Ebong in getting justice on the matter while absolving the good people of his state from the barbaric culture of wide battering.
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However, the gory nature of the December 14 video is another reminder that domestic violence such as physical and s3xual violence should be expressly codified as crimes. Without such laws, Nigeria will continue in its ignominy as a place where violence against women is a culture. For a long time, international rights groups such as The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) have cried out against the absence of national laws specifically targeting gender based violence. They have also decried Section 55(1) (d) of the Penal Code in Northern Nigeria which sees beatings as a form of correction. According to the provision: an assault by a man on a woman is not an offense if they are married, if native law or custom recognizes such “correction” as lawful, and if there is no grievous hurt.” However, extant laws such as Section 383 of the Constitution imply that a person can seek either a civil or criminal suit to redress domestic violence. That is what the Police are seeking to achieve by pressing further with the Ebong case.
Dr. Marcel Mbamalu is a communication scholar, journalist and entrepreneur. He holds a Ph.D in Mass Communication from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and is the Chief Executive Officer Newstide Publications, the publishers of Prime Business Africa.
A seasoned journalist, he horned his journalism skills at The Guardian Newspaper, rising to the position of News Editor at the flagship of the Nigerian press. He has garnered multidisciplinary experience in marketing communication, public relations and media research, helping clients to deliver bespoke campaigns within Nigeria and across Africa.
He has built an expansive network in the media and has served as a media trainer for World Health Organisation (WHO) at various times in Northeast Nigeria. He has attended numerous media trainings, including the Bloomberg Financial Journalism Training and Reuters/AfDB training on Effective Coverage of Infrastructural Development of Africa.
A versatile media expert, he won the Jefferson Fellowship in 2023 as the sole Africa representative on the program. Dr Mbamalu was part of a global media team that covered the 2020 United State’s Presidential election. As Africa's sole representative in the 2023 Jefferson Fellowships, Dr Mbamalu was selected to tour the United States and Asia (Japan and Hong Kong) as part of a 12-man global team of journalists on a travel grant to report on inclusion, income gaps and migration issues between the US and Asia.
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