 print  email   |
It was hard for Julius Sossu, 45, to believe that he now faced prosecution and could possibly pay with his own life, for stabbing his landlord to death.
“I no know the thing I dey do at that moment. I no know why I dey carry knife.” Apparently, the full weight of his action had dawned on him as he was paraded by the police over the death of his landlord, whom he had stabbed for giving him a deadline of September ending to quit his accommodation at Morogbo area of Ikorodu.
Also, on September 21, a 56-year-old man, John Oromoro, was arrested by officers from the Ilemba Hausa Police Station for allegedly killing his pastor, Benjamin Ojinaka. Mr Oromoro said his pastor raped his 15-year-old daughter. The incident happened at Jakande estate at Ajangbadi area of the state after a fight between Mr Oromoro and the pastor.
A more gruesome case is that of Josephine Chukwu Okafor, a 40-year-old mother of two who died when her assailant, Marcel Manukwem, allegedly attacked her with a sharp instrument at their Akinwumi Street residence in Itire, on August 22.
According to some other residents, Mr Manukwem threw Mrs Okafor down their three-storey apartment after he had sexually assaulted her. Mrs Okafor was a close friend of Mr Manukwem’s mother and had once lived with them with her two children - a boy and a girl. But on that fateful day, Mrs Okafor was said to have visited the family about 4pm, but met only Mr Manukwem at home.
Mr Manukwen, after the incident, claimed he suffered temporary insanity. He said something beyond his power came over him and made him kill Mrs Okafor. “I was at home when she knocked and I do not know what later happened. All I know is that we have depression problem in my family and several times I have visited a psychiatric for help. People said I killed her but I don’t know what came over me. I was running naked on the street that day and when the police arrested me, they said I killed my mother’s best friend,” he said.
More than five persons have been paraded by the Lagos State police command for alleged homicide from July till date. The growing cases of domestic violence in the city of Lagos have been blamed on the breakdown of social values and the effect of poverty in the country.
Frustration as a factor
According to Charles Umeh, a psychologist at the University of Lagos, the resort to violence in homes or among neighbours can be attributed to a number of factors, which range from increasing financial difficulty to stress and sexual incompatibility in the case of husband and wife.
“In most cases of domestic violence, sexual incompatibility could be responsible, although other reasons are usually adduced when other people get involved in such matters,” he said.
With regard to neighbours who resort to violence to settle scores, Dr Umeh said, “You find that such people have personality incompatibility but are forced by circumstance to live together. Such frustrating situations make them take to violence as a way to ventilate what they feel inside. And before you know it, they have done what they would later regret and attribute to external locus of control.”
This, Mr Umeh said, is common among Africans who see every reason to blame their actions on the devil or other external causes.
“If it is due to insanity, there have to be elements that are associated with that, but what you find is that people that plead insanity to such crimes are normal, but are only driven by factors such as frustration, lack of confidence or factors that render them insecure.”
Ignorance contributes
Benjamin Odeh, a lawyer with Project Alert, a non-profit outfit in Lagos which seeks justice for abused women and girls, said violence of any kind should be condemned.
“What usually causes violence, be it domestic, involving people in the same household or on a larger scale, is condemnable. This is a criminal issue which to a large extent can be traced to social and economic factors. The Domestic Violence law of 2007, Section 1, says nobody shall commit any act of violence and this law protects everybody, be it men, women, girls, boys, and domestic staff,” said Mr Odeh.
He added that the reason for the increase in violence is largely because people do not know their rights, and so cases that could pose potential danger or likely to snowball into violence are often ignored until they happen.
“Violence has assumed this level because people do not know their rights. They do not know where to go for help. People should be educated on their rights; campaign and enlightenment of the public on their right will go a long way in helping abused people to seek redress when their rights are violated,” said Mr Odeh.
Police spokesperson, Frank Mba, while parading one of the suspects, said the police is worried about the increasing cases of violence in the state. He wondered why issues that could be resolved through dialogue would degenerate into violence.
“People should shun violence and embrace peace,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment