Housewife loses eye after fight with in-laws

A married woman has lost one of her eyes after her husband's mother and sisters beat her up.

A 52-year-old mother of two, Olasunkanmi Lawal, will live the rest of her life with one eye after a scuffle with her mother-in-law and two of her sisters-in-law ended with her losing one eye.

It was gathered that Lawal and her mother-in-law, Aduke Awakan, 79, had an issue that degenerated into a fight and the woman's daughters, Bose Showole, 39 and Oduntan Enitan, 24, teamed up with the mother to beat her to a pulp, ending up blinding her in one eye.

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The incident allegedly happened at the family's house located on Isale-Agbede Street, on the Lagos Island area of Lagos State.

It was learnt that the case was reported at the Adeniji Adele Police Station, leading to the arrest of the suspects.

Explaining what led to the fight, Lawal said she was attacked because she stopped giving money to her septuagenarian in-law because her business had collapsed.

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“My husband and I live in the family house and we have been there since 1989. We have two children.

However, my mother-in-law started keeping malice with me after I stopped giving her money. I lost my jewellery business due to the demolition of my shop in 2014 and because of that, I could no longer support her.

On Saturday, January 16, around 4pm, I returned from work and I met her at home. When I greeted her, she shunned me. I was surprised because I never had any disagreement with her.

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Before I knew it, one of her children, Bose (Showole), punched me in the left eye. I fought back. Her grandchild, Enitan, used stone to hit me in the same eye, while the woman herself hit me with a chair. Blood started coming out from the eye.”

Lawal further said that by the time she was taken to the Lagos Island General Hospital, the doctors told her she had lost the use of her left eye.

However, Lawal who is not comfortable with the way the police at the Adekunle Police Division handled the matter after Awakan was released,  accused the Investigating Police Officer (IPO),Sarah Ajekigbe, of siding with the suspects against her, by deliberately preventing her from completing her statement at the station.

“She stopped me midway and said I should go to the hospital for treatment. But when I returned to finish writing the statement, she said it was no longer necessary. Even the DPO queried her for the action,” she added.

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The major suspect, Awakan, denied any knowledge of the circumstances that led to Lawal's predicament.

In her statement to the police, she said:

“It was about 4pm. I was at home when Alhaja (Lawal) came in and greeted me and I told her not to greet me again. Alhaja is the wife of my son. I asked her not to greet me because the previous day, she abused me indirectly and I decided not to reply her greetings again.

So, when she came in and greeted me, I shunned her, but one of my daughters intervened. I don’t know how she got injured in the eye,” she added.

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Showole, in her defence, said she intervened because Lawal, her brother’s wife, was abusing her mother and pointing a finger at her.

“I pushed her hand and she slapped me on the face. Then we started fighting. She held my clothes and I did the same. I don’t know what happened to her eye,” she said.

The police, however, arraigned the trio before a Tinubu Magistrate’s Court on three counts of assault occasioning harm and the case was adjourned till March 24, 2016.