A middle aged man, Sunday Uguru, has been arrested by the Ebonyi State Police Command for allegedly beating his wife and mother of his seven children, Anulika Uguru, to death over a minor argument.
The incident, according to the State Police spokeswoman, Loveth Odah, happened at Ekwru community in, Inyimaegu, Izzi local government area of the state, following alleged domestic violence and wife battery.
The state Chairman, Human Right Defenders (HURIDE), Sampson Oko Nweke, in a statement on Saturday, said the victim, who hails from Ndiechi Onuebonyi Igbeagu, had earlier reported a case of wife battery and domestic violence to his office against her husband, Sunday Uguru on April 19.
He stated that there was little delay in serving notice of invitation to her husband because of an issue of an invalid phone number but on the day the deceased was invited to make a statement, his office got a report that she had died.
Nweke noted that the rights group had tried to intervene in the matter before it took the deadly turn.
“On the 25th of April, 2022, I spoke with the deceased on phone in the morning, inviting her to our office for further action to be taken.
After waiting for many hours in the afternoon and she didn’t come, I dialed her phone number which was picked by another woman who told me that the owner of the phone is dead.
“The woman directed us to one village clinic at Sharon junction where I saw the motionless body of Mrs. Anulika.
“We went in company of a member of GBV Taskforce in Ebonyi State, Comrade Matthias Okinya. The sight of the dead woman filled my heart with uncontrollable rage and resentment, I phoned the police immediately and a detachment of police came but the husband was nowhere to be found.
“We launched a serious search for him with the assistance of concerned villagers and later got him apprehended. He is currently in police detention while the corpse has been deposited in the morgue,” Nweke said.
