A 27-year-old woman, Mary
Sunday, has been in the hospital bed at Igbobi Orthopaedic Hospital seven
months after she was allegedly attacked by her fiancé, Corporal Isaac Gbanwuan,
with a pot of boiling stew and a lighted stove.
It was learnt that Sunday
had lost her ears due to the attack.
Before the attack, which
took place in August 2012, Sunday, was to report for training at the Police
Academy, Kano as a cadet officer.
Still nursing severe burns
to her neck, chest and upper arms,
Sunday can barely sit or walk straight. She holds her head stiffly and talks
with difficulty as she recalled the events that led to her present state to
PUNCH Metro on Wednesday.
She said, “I have known
Gbanwuan for a while, while I was still a student at the University of Nigeria,
Nsukka, but it wasn’t until our marriage introduction in 2011 that I moved in
with him at the Pedro Police Barracks, Lagos.
“On the day I was assaulted,
Gbanwuan and I went to see our doctor. We had some health issues. While we were
on our way back home, I made a phone call. Immediately we got home, Gbanwuan
started querying me. He accused me of keeping lovers and claimed the person I
called was my lover.
“I tried to explain to him
that it was my sister I called, but Gbanwuam was not listening. He began to
beat me,” Sunday said.
Unable to take it any more,
Sunday said she ran into the kitchen of a neighbour with Gbanwuan giving
pursuit. He allegedly broke into the kitchen where he continued to assault
Sunday.
She said, “Then to the
horror of those who tried to intervene, Gbanwuan seized his neighbour’s cooking
stove on which was a pot of boiling stew, emptying the entire contents on me.
“I don’t know for how long I
was unconscious but I was later told that I was in a coma for seven days. I
learnt the stove also exploded after Gbanwuan threw it with the boiling soup at
me.
“I was first rushed to a
private hospital at Bariga before I was eventually transferred to Igbobi
hospital.
“I couldn’t tell my family
for a while because I could not use my hands; they were sort of stuck to my chest.
It was after much treatment, that I was able to use my hands and call my
family.”
Sunday’s lawyer, Mr. Moses
Kassim, told PUNCH Metro that a petition had already been sent to the Police
Provost Office and the Commissioner of Police.
He said, “We have still not
received any response from either of them. Gbanwuan is yet to be arrested
despite the fact that Sunday’s family reported the case at the Pedro Police
Division.
“While Sunday is confined to
a hospital bed, Gbanwuan is still at his duty post at the Ebutte Ero division,
showing no concern for her condition.”
Copies of the acknowledged
petition received by the Provost Office and Commissioner of Police were dated
January 17, 2013.
When PUNCH Metro contacted
Gbanwaun, he denied causing any harm to his fiancée.
He said, “What Sunday has
told you are all lies. She has been going about saying all sorts of things
about me.
“That is how she wrote a
petition through her lawyer to the Lagos State Police Command. Anyway, the
matter is already being investigated by the command.”
When our correspondent sought his opinion on how Sunday got her
injury that had kept her in the hospital, the policeman said, “I don’t know
what to tell you. Like I said, the matter is being investigated.
The Lagos Deputy Police
Public Relations Officer, DSP Damascus Ozoani, said he was yet to be fully
briefed on the issue.
He said, “I don’t have all
the facts right now. Let me investigate and I will respond to the story.”
But Sunday said she was more
concerned with getting well.
She said, “All I want is the
money to treat myself. My doctors are afraid to tell me how much because they
don’t want me to be worried, but I have overhead them discussing several times.
“There is a deep wound in my
chest which has to be treated and then my neck has to be operated on because it
has been stiff since the incident and then there is the matter of my upper
arms.
“The doctor, who attended to
me at the first hospital I went to in Bariga, told me that I would have to go
to India to have my ears reconstructed because they melted. He said I would
need N5m.
“Gbanwaun’s family has
abandoned me. They did so immediately my family reported the matter to the
police. My mother is dead and my father is aged. Coping with my daily treatment
here is a struggle for my siblings.”
Culled from PUNCH
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