Man In The Dock For Neglecting 17-Year-Old Wife

A 35-year-old man, Simeon Ekwuruke, has been dragged before a Lagos State Chief Magistrate’s Court for allegedly neglecting his 17-year-old wife and denying her the necessities of life.

The court learnt that though Ekwuruke and his teenage 'wife' were not legally married, she was living with him and performing the duties of a wife since she was in Junior Secondary School 2.

The young girl reportedly got pregnant at the tender age of 13 and was forced to move in with Ekwurike. And withing a space of four years, the couple went on to have three more children in their one room apartment on Ladafe Dada Street, Ikate, Surulere, Lagos.

But on getting pregnant with her fourth child, Ekwuruke allegedly began assaulting her as well as denying the paternity of the children. Apart from assaulting his 'wife', Ekwurike constantly starved her and the children as well as refusing to live up to his responsibility as a husband and father.

She had no option but to beg neighbours for food and it was one of their co-tenant who became fed up with the way Ekwurike was behaving that reported the matter to the police and he was arrested and arraigned at the Chief Magistrate’s Court sitting at Ebute Meta, on one count of failure to provide for his household.

The charge read:

That you, Simeon Ekwuruke, between the month of September and October, 2014 at Ladafe Dada Street, Ikate Surulere, Lagos, in the Lagos Magisterial District, being charged with the duty of providing for (daughter), aged one and half years, and (wife), aged 17 years, the necessities of life, did unlawfully fail to do so, whereby their lives and health are likely to be endangered and thereby committed an offence.

The police prosecutor, Corporal Cyriacus Osuji, said the offence was punishable under Section 245 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2011, and prescribes two years imprisonment for the offence.

But the Chief Magistrate, Mrs. Demi Ajayi, said the case should be brought into her chamber because it was a family matter. At the end of the private deliberation, the defendant was granted bail in the sum of N100,000 with one surety in like sum.

She also ordered that Ekwuruke, his ‘wife’, and the three children should go for a DNA test, to ascertain their paternity.