Housewife Loses Left Eye After Alleged Fight With In-laws

Olasunkanmi Lawal, a 52-year-old housewife and mother of two has reportedly lost the use of one of her eyes after a fight with her 79-year-old mother-in-law, Aduke Awakan, and sisters-in-law, Bose Showole, 39, and Oduntan Enitan, 24, at their family house on Isale-Agbede Street, in the Lagos Island area of Lagos.

Recounting her ordeal, the victim told Punch,

“My husband and I live in the family house and we have been there since 1989. We have two children.

However, my mother-in-law started keeping malice with me after I stopped giving her money. I lost my jewellery business due to the demolition of my shop in 2014 and because of that; I could no longer support her.

On Saturday, January 16, around 4pm, I returned from work and I met her at home. When I greeted her, she shunned me. I was surprised because I never had any disagreement with her.

Before I knew it, one of her children, Bose (Showole), punched me in the left eye. I fought back. Her grandchild, Enitan, used stone to hit me in the same eye, while the woman herself hit me with a chair. Blood started coming out from the eye.”

She said she reported the assault at the Adeniji Adele Police Station and from there, she was referred to the Lagos Island General Hospital, where the doctors told her she had lost the use of her left eye.

The suspects have however denied the allegations. In her statement to the police, her mother-in-law said,

“It was about 4pm. I was at home when Alhaja (Lawal) came in and greeted me and I told her not to greet me again.

Alhaja is the wife of my son. I asked her not to greet me because the previous day, she abused me indirectly and I decided not to reply her greetings again.

So, when she came in and greeted me, I shunned her, but one of my daughters intervened.”

She added that Lawal and her daughter, Showole, had an argument which degenerated into a fight but she doesn’t know how her eye got injured.

Defending herself, however, Showole said she intervened because her brother’s wife was abusing her mother and pointing a finger at her.

She added, “I pushed her hand and she slapped me on the face. Then we started fighting. She held my clothes and I did the same. I don’t know what happened to her eye,” she said.

The other suspect, Enitan, denied involvement in the fight, claiming it was between Lawal and Showole.

The suspects were arraigned before a Tinubu Magistrate’s Court on three counts of assault occasioning harm but pleaded not guilty.

They were subsequently granted bail in the sum of N20,000 with two sureties in like sum.

The case was adjourned till March 24, 2016.