Domestic Violence:Woman Needs Help For Treatment After Her Husband Poured Hot Water On Her.

A middle-aged woman and mother of three, Olawakemi Fawowe has appealed for public support following injuries she sustained from a domestic abuse.

She is lying critically ill at the Ogba medical centre after her estranged husband bathed her with hot water.

Her neck down to her waist is burned and she can hardly eat or sit.

Oluwakemi said she incured her husband's wrath after she moved out of their home over constant battering .

"I left my husband when his beating becomes (sic) to much. I left our house in Lagos to stay with my in-laws at Ijoko in Ogun State, but he trailed me there. I was not expecting what he did next because I felt I was safe with his family and he will not hurt me in their presence," she said.

"But I was wrong as he threw a hot stove on me and both the hot stove and boiling water splashed on me; my body was on fire. I started shouting and that was when people rushed to save me."

Fawowe was subsequently arrested and granted bail by officers attached to Iju police station, but he has reportedly jumped bail and gone into hiding.

Oluwakemi said she would need about a million naira to pay her medical bills and undergo surgery.

Toyin Saraki, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Wellbeing Foundation Africa, decried the increasing cases of domestic violence against women.

She described her case as one of several cases of domestic violence against women in Nigeria.

Toyin also criticised government's lukewarm attitude towards the trend, adding that even pregnant women are not spared by violent men.

Toyin expressed her concern during an event organised to mark the World Peace Day on September 21, themed, "Peace One Day's Global Truce 2012 -reducing Domestic Violence".

"We discovered that violence in the home has been on the rise and pregnant women are the most at risk, as when the baby begins to kick in the fifth month, the husband too begins to kick. This is the sad reality," she said.

According to Temitayo Erogbogbo, Executive Director of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, over fifty percent of women in Nigeria are victims of domestic violence.

Temitayo added that one out of two women have been physically abused by their male partner.

"The statistics of domestic violence against women is horrendous as over fifty percent of women in Nigeria are victims of domestic violence. This figure shows that one out of two women on the street are routinely abused by their partner," he said.

Katherine Edoho, the estranged wife of Frank Edoho, the celebrity host of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" Game Show, also decried the impunity associated with domestic violence.

"Just to merely disagree with your husband is a big problem as he sees you as challenging his authority, then it starts with yelling to slapping and he does it again and again," she said, while narrating her experience.

Also Hadiza, the wife of musician, Zaaki Azzay, said she incured her husband's wrath when she refused to abort a pregnancy.

"He started hitting me and I rushed to the closet to hide my stomach. He had some drugs in his hand and as he was hitting my back, he said I should drink it. I pretended as if I wanted to drink it but I ran out of the house, " she said.

She has since sued her husband for alleged battering.

The women jointly called for stiffer laws against domestic violence and enjoined the public to speak out against the rising trend of violence in Nigeria.

"We need to speak out. Its not in our best interest to keep silent and continue to stay in a violent relationship. If your happiness is what you need in life, then there is nothing wrong in starting all over," Katherine said.

Source Daily Times.