A human rights group, Project Alert on
Violence against Women, has petitioned the Lagos State Assistant
Inspector General of Police, over an Egyptian’s alleged assault on his
Nigerian wife.
The petition, dated May 5, 2014, stated
that Mrs. Mufida Ozoglu of Jos, Plateau State, got married to an
Egyptian, Mr. Muhammed Abd El Hfiz in 2011.
The union, which was blessed with a child, was said to be marred with incessant domestic violence, assaults and threats to life.
Matters, however, came to a head when
Abd El Hfiz allegedly sent his Nigerian wife packing from their house on
Abike Sulaiman Street, Lekki Phase 2, Lagos, saying that he wanted to
take his child with him to Egypt.
The petition, which was signed by the
group’s lawyer, Benjamin Odeh, read in part, “Mr. Abd El Hfiz has
assaulted our client on several occasions.
“The suspect in this case has an
ungovernable temper and has boasted to Ozoglu that with his connections
in Nigeria, he would frustrate her.”
PUNCH Metro got in touch with the victim on Thursday, and she explained that her husband had sent her out of the house.
Ozoglu, who said she was currently
putting up at a friend’s house, said the last time she visited her
one-year-old child, Abd El Hfiz asked her to renounce her baby.
She said, “Although we have been
together for about two years, we had our court wedding a year ago. I
have not been able to see his family members because he kept making
excuses. He can be very violent. He doesn’t allow me to make friends.
“At a time, he burnt my hand. But when I
reported him at the Maroko Police Station and he was invited by the
police, he refused to show up. The matter was later resolved.
“The climax of everything was
penultimate Saturday, when he suddenly barged into my boutique at Lekki,
and asked why I went to see off my brother’s ex-girlfriend, who had
come to the market to buy things.
“He locked up my shop, took my car key,
and sent the salesgirl away. He said I should just walk out of the
marriage the way I came. I walked down the street with just my clothes
and handbag.”
She said Abd El Hfiz employed the service of a nanny, who began taking care of her child, but allowed her to visit him.
“On the last day I went with my brother,
when he came back from work and saw me, he held us hostage for about
two hours and said I should write a statement that I am no longer the
mother of my child. I refused and said it will be over my dead body that
that will happen,” she added.
Ozoglu said she only wanted her child, adding that she was done with the union.
Project alert, in its petition, asked
the AIG to intervene and investigate the case, saying, “…if this
atrocity was committed in his country by a Nigerian, the punishment is
life imprisonment by the Egyptian authorities. The situation where the
rights of women are being handled with trivialities must be
discouraged.”
When our correspondent contacted Abd El Hfiz on the telephone, he denied the allegations.
He said, “The allegations are false. I
am a responsible man and I work in a big organisation, so I will not do
anything to spoil my name. I gave my wife everything she needed – a good
house, car and shop.
“But her problem is that she keeps
company with bad people. If she has problems, she doesn’t go to her
family members, she only runs to her bad friends. She doesn’t have a
good attitude to life. The child you talked about is in the house and I
have given her the free hand to visit him anytime she liked. If I wanted
to take my child to Egypt, I would have done that a long time ago.”
When asked about the assault and threat
to life, he said, “I have never beaten her before, my friend, I am an
old man, I am an Egyptian. I can invite you to the house and even make
you speak with her family members. She is the one who has problems.”
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