Narrating her ordeal to Vanguard in Ibadan, Mrs Olugbade, who resides at Owodun Street, Elewure, Akala Way in Oluyole Local Government area of Oyo State, said she had been facing domestic violence since she got married to her husband 21 years ago.
She said: “I got married in 2001, and my marriage has produced four children namely Precious, 22 years; Oyin is 20, Olamide is 15 and Tobi 11 years. My husband, Saheed Olugbade, is a police officer at Iyaganku Police station with the rank of DSP.
“He has been physically abusing me since we got married. He always beats and sends me out of the house whenever he marries another wife. We are legally married but he has married two more wives after me. Even there was a time his brother also beat me and even stripped off my cloth. I almost fell inside well while trying to run away. At that time we were still living at Ososami. There was even a time he used an axe to cut my body.
“I left his house four years ago when I couldn’t bear the incessant abuse again. And as we are all aware that schools resumed not too long ago in Oyo State, my children are supposed to return to school but they can’t because I don’t have money.
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“ I’m a petty trader selling drinks but there were no sales and I even went to collect vegetable oil on credit to hawk at Aleshinloye market just for me to raise money to send my children back to school.
“It was one of my children who saw the hardship we were facing that put a call through to their dad and he promised to pay the school fees when he collects his September salary but he didn’t fulfil his promise. My daughter had to call him with her teacher’s phone but he abused the girl and her teacher on phone.
“To my surprise, I just saw him in our house the following morning, Wednesday, and he started shouting at me and I begged him not to shout because we just moved into the apartment. After he entered the house, he began shouting again calling me different names and my children bastards.
“ He even told them not to call his number again. I told him to leave my house and he started beating me and punched me in the eyes. I would have been dead if my last child had not called for help. It was my neighbours that rescued me from him.”
While appealing to the state Commissioner of Police, CP Adebowale Williams, Olugbade to come to her aid over domestic violence.
Corroborating his mother’s claim during an interview with Vanguard, the eldest son, Precious, lamented that his father had been brutalising their mother since he was five years old.
He urged the relevant authorities to rescue them by prevailing on his father not to kill their mother.
A visit to CP’s office
When Vanguard visited the suspect’s office at Iyaganku, his boss, Officer in Charge, O/C, of Transport, SP Shittu Aremu, confirmed the attack, saying the woman has reported similar cases to him more than five times.
He said he was able to settle some while other issues were settled by family and friends of the two parties.
The victim’s lawyer, Olusegun Amoo, who led Mrs Olugbade alongside her two children and two other siblings to the Commissioner of Police Office, said the CP was shocked when he saw the woman.
He said: “The CP welcomed the victim and her children to his office at the command headquarters in Eleyele, Ibadan.
“He was dumbfounded to see the level of injury inflicted on the victim by the father of her children. The CP promised that the case will not be swept under the carpet and that the law will take its full course. He consequently handed the woman and her two sons to the O/C X- Squad for necessary action immediately.”