A woman, Alice Effiong, who had her front teeth knocked off by her husband, a lawyer, Columbus Effiong, has started pleading with the police and a human rights group involved in the case to release her already detained husband.
SaharaReporters had reported how a human rights group, Advocates for Children and Vulnerable Persons Network received a distress call from a mandated reporter that Alice was allegedly battered by her lawyer husband, Columbus Effiong.
Alice, who lost her front teeth to the beating, told SaharaReporters that the doctor had informed her of the need to get artificial teeth installed.
She said her husband had been beating her for a long time but she described the latest assault as brutal.
Following the report, ACVPN Coordinator, Ebenezer Omejalile ensured the police arrested Columbus but sadly, instead of cooperating with the rights group and the police to ensure her husband is brought to justice, Alice had turned around to recant her statement adding that her husband was innocent and would want him released immediately.
Speaking on this, Omejalile expressed sadness over the development. He said “This woman, Alice, whose front teeth were punched off by her Iron Mike Tyson lawyer husband, is seriously begging for the man to be released. I can’t even imagine the stress we passed through before the man was eventually arrested. She called me yesterday from the state command that all the alarm she raised about her husband was false.
“The survivor called me and appealed that the perpetrators’ family called them to come over to their hometown to settle the case.
“My response to her was why didn’t the same family prevent the numerous violence she suffered in the past before this present one that got her front teeth removed?”
Speaking further, Omejalile said, “Several lawyers have been calling me, appealing to us to show mercy, I just don’t get it.”
Meanwhile, before his arrest, Columbus, in a conversation with their landlord, was heard complaining of the frustrations he had experienced at the hand of his wife.
He said his wife pushed him into it, citing several ways she had allegedly not lived up to her responsibilities.
He said: “If it is prison, I am ready, even if it is for 10 years, I’ll be happy, so she will feel the brunt of what I am feeling, the school fees, the feeding, the nonsensical thing she is doing in my house. She has pushed me into this. Why will somebody with children be sleeping around 8:30 am?
“There is no love, it is the children that are making me condone her in this marriage.”
He was heard promising to further assault his wife for trying to take legal steps against him.
Alice had earlier confessed to SaharaReporters that she didn’t want to separate from her husband but hoped he could be prevailed upon to stop assaulting her.
She said, “I don’t want to separate from him but when the deliberations are concluded and he doesn’t change, I might have to leave him. All I want is that they should ensure he doesn’t beat me anymore. It’s the beating I don’t want.”
