Police have arrested a 32-year-old woman for allegedly pouring hot water on her husband, identified as Ike Akachi, at Ijesha area of Lagos State.
The suspect, Joy Imeribe, a mother of four, had a quarrel with her husband before they went to bed.
Akachi didn’t know that his wife was still angry.
The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Imohimi Edgal, disclosed that the following morning, while Akachi was eating breakfast, Joy sneaked up behind him and poured hot water on him from head to toe.
According to Joy, although she and Akachi were not legally married, they had been living together for 13 years and the relationship had produced four children.
She said: “Whenever my husband wants to beat me, he would lock the door, tie me to the bed, pull my hair and drag me on the floor of our house.
“I didn’t intentionally pour hot water on my husband. In fact, the hot water was for bathing of my children. My husband is fond of starving the children, and that was what led to our argument on that fateful night.
“We both went to bed angry. When I accused him of starving the children, he started beating me. He called me a prostitute and added that I didn’t come from a good home.
“I left him to rent apartment somewhere at Anthony to take care of my children when the beating was becoming unbearable for me.”
Joy explained that after she left home, her husband traced her to her new apartment and begged her to return home with their children.
She said: “I went back to him because of the love I have for him. Unfortunately, the beating continued and he continued to accuse me of cheating on him.
“The following day, when we woke up, my husband started beating me from where he stopped. Before I knew what was happening, he had locked the door and my children were crying. He threatened to kill my children if they didn’t stop crying. I was appealing to him, to let me be, that I was carrying his pregnancy when I noticed that he was not listening to me. I picked the bucket of hot water I wanted to use to bathe the children and poured it on him from head to toe. I then escaped from him.”
Edgal said that the incident occurred on May 29 at No. 1, Karounwi Street, Ijesha. The commissioner said that it was a domestic violence case and centred on Joy, who shockingly poured hot water on her husband after a quarrel.
He added: “This is a worrisome case. It is coming barely a week after a teacher stabbed her husband to death at the Ikorodu area of Lagos State.
“The couple slept together on the same bed.
The husband didn’t know that his wife still had grudges with him over their previous altercation. While the husband was having breakfast, the woman boiled water and poured it on her husband from behind. The man is presently in the hospital. The suspect would be charged to court after completion of investigation.” The commissioner, however, advised couples having issues to talk to experts, church members and possibly relatives and not hold grudges against each other.