Husband sets wife ablaze over infidelity suspicion

Suspicion of infidelity Zuwaira said that she has been married to Abdullahi for about a year now, accusing her husband of locking her up since then. “He locks me up in my room every morning before he leaves for business and only opens the room in the evenings when he’s returned from the market,” she […]

Suspicion of infidelity

Zuwaira said that she has been married to Abdullahi for about a year now, accusing her husband of locking her up since then. “He locks me up in my room every morning before he leaves for business and only opens the room in the evenings when he’s returned from the market,” she said tearfully. She added that he started the habit he was told by neighbours that she goes out regularly in his absence, an allegation she denied.

“He stopped me from seeing anybody and stopped anybody from seeing me. He does not even allow me even to visit the toilet in his absence. I used to relieve myself in the room and get rid of the mess after he returns. He does not allow me to relate with our neighbors.”

However, Zuwaira said she had a cheap handset which remained her only source of communicating with the outside world. But one day, she looked for it and could not find it, suspecting that her husband took it away.

A hot tale indeed

“So, one day I insisted that he call my line with the hope that it was lost somewhere in the room. A man answered the call. From there, [m husband] started beating me, asking me where I knew the man that answered from. He started abusing me, saying my secrets have been exposed. I pleaded with him that I was innocent but he did not listen to me instead he continued pushing me around while I cried. He then splashed kerosene on me and set me on fire. I was burning, screaming in pain before people broke in and rescued me.”

 An eyewitness, who is a neighbour of the family, Suleiman Burga, said when they broke into the room to rescue Zuwaira, they found the husband standing on one side and his wife on fire on the other side. “Though we are neighbours, we have not seen much of the victim. We learnt that her husband locks her up every morning before leaving to do his business of selling vegetables in the market. He used to come back in the afternoon to feed her and later in the evenings when he returned. Several times we had passed by her room and found it locked during daytime.”   

Another neighbour, Rhoda Musa, said though she and other neighbours had no cause to interact with Zuwaira, when they heard her cries of agony, they rushed to help her. “It took us some time before we could rescue her from her husband. We had to break the door to bring her out.”

Not so much fire

When contacted, the husband, Malam Abdullahi, denied most of the allegations his wife levelled against him. He said though sometimes he locked her, he always gave her the key to keep when he was going to remain outside for long. Malam Abdullahi said the only thing he did was to stop his wife from communicating with other people with the exception of her relatives. He also said Zuwaira set herself on fire.

Abdullahi told Weekly Trust: “I thought she was joking when she said she was going to set herself on fire. She poured the fuel by herself and set the fire. I was sleeping. I did not believe she was serious when she threatened to do it, so when I saw the fire, I thought she was just reading by lantern light or something.”

Unreasonable reason?

According to Abdullahi, his wife had always been difficult, exhibiting rebellious behaviour like shaving off her hair completely. He said he did not harm her, because when she set herself on fire he was there and he took her to the hospital. He also said what actually happened is that he showed displeasure at her late return from a trip to see her family. “She spent over 50 days there without my consent. She got pissed off because I expressed my displeasure.”

The state commissioner of police, Alhaji Atiku Yusuf Kafur, confirmed having received a report of the incident, saying the matter is under investigation.

Defending himself, Abdullahi said: “I bought medicines worth over N600 for her after taking her to the hospital. It is not as if I do not love my wife.”