It’s better to be alive and single than to be dead, married.
Yemi
Olakitan writes,
The death of
Famous Nigerian Gospel musician Osinachi Nwachukwu shocked many Nigerians but
it should be a lesson to all women, not only in Nigeria but all over the world.
When you find yourself in a violent relationship or an abusive marriage, be
kind to yourself enough to divorce the mad man or at least be separated from
him. It is better to be alive, single than to be dead, married.
Before a
woman died from a violent attack from her man, he must have been hitting her
long before then. But, her failure to walk away will eventually kill her.
Osinachi has
won the hearts of the Christian community in Nigeria with her sonorous Gospel
music before her death. She shot into the limelight with the hit “Ekwueme“,
which has been watched 72 million times on YouTube but she passed away in an
Abuja hospital due to alleged domestic violence from her husband.
She was a
lead singer at the Dunamis International Gospel Centre. She was featured in
several popular gospel songs like “Nara Ekele” by Pastor Paul Enenche (Dunamis,
Abuja) and “You no dey use me play” by Emma.
Close friends
and associates have revealed to the media that her violent union led to her
untimely death. Her colleague, Frank
Edwards, alleged that the late singer had an abusive husband, who regularly brutalized
her before she died.
Frank
Edwards said on several occasions, the late singer’s husband was in the habit
of publicly insulting his wife, and he abused her on several occasions.
Recounting
an encounter with the singer, he said, “One time in a studio, this man slapped
her in the studio just because she wanted to record the song in Igbo against
his will. She does not do anything on her own.”
“She would
say, please beg my husband. She was at his mercy. I didn’t know the intensity
of what she was going through; I didn’t know how somebody would be jealous of
their wife or claim to love.
“There are a
lot of stories where people told her this and that, but what I know was that
the control was too much. The other time somebody wanted me to get her for an
event, and I contacted her, but she said ‘beg my husband.”
The singer
also alleged that the late singer’s husband was controlling and would take the
money she made from events. He, however, said the singer was secretive about
what she was going through in her marriage.
“She
couldn’t even tell people what she was going through. I only got to know
because Aunty Joy contacted me to promote her song. That was when I got a
glimpse into what was happening,” he said.
“It’s
crazy,” he lamented.
“People have
tried to invite her for their programmes, but she will keep telling them that
they must beg my husband first,” he said.
Further
narrating his experiences about the late singer’s marital hurdle with her
husband, he said a former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development
Commission, NDDC, Joy Nunieh, once gifted the singer a studio in Abuja. Still,
her husband never allowed her to use the studio simply because it was built
without his permission.
Crying out
for Justice, Edward said he would go all out on social media for the first time
in his career until justice was served.
“I have
never had any reason to have a court case with anyone because I am a child of
God, but you see this case, it won’t just go like that because she was a
blessing to the world.
“I usually
don’t get involved in things like this, I keep my family and personal stuff off
social media, but this one hurt me,” he said. He also said Mrs Nunieh, a
lawyer, has promised to take up legal action against Mr Nwanchukwu. The gospel
singer also advised women in abusive marriages to take a long walk. He said:
“My advice is even if you are not a wife if you are being physically abused,
go back to your parent’s house.”
Police Arrests Osinachi’s Husband,
Peter Nwachukwu
Osinachi
Nwachukwu’s husband, Peter Nwachukwu has been arrested in Abuja.
Peter Nwachukwu
was arrested after the late Osinachi’s family formally filed a complaint of
“culpable homicide against one Mr Peter Nwachukwu who is a husband to the
deceased
“He is now
in our custody. The younger brother of the deceased reported the matter and we
have commenced an investigation,” Abuja police command spokeswoman Josephine Adeh
said.
The deceased
singer’s elder sister, Ms Favour Made, alleged in an interview with Vanguard
that Osinachi was kicked in the chest by her husband Nwachukwu.
Ms Made said
in the interview that her family had tried unsuccessfully to make her walk away
from the marriage because of domestic violence.
“When the
man kicked her on the chest, she fell down and he took her to the hospital but
he did not even tell us,” Ms Made said, “It was her friend who lives in Ebonyi
state that called her twin sister, because Osinachi has a twin sister, to ask, ‘did
your sister tell you that Peter hit her on the chest? The sister then told her
no.
“It was the
hitting on the chest that killed her. My brother had to ask the doctor what killed
her and the doctor said that there were clusters of blood on her chest.”
A few gospel
singers who worked with Osinachi Nwachukwu also accused her husband of domestic
violence.
Women must learn to walk away!
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