Impunity comes in diverse cloaks but it has a common denominator, namely an affronting violation of communal sense of decency and morality. That seems the meaning to make of the story of a man who not only battered his wife recently, but also proceeded on social media to boast about his act and dare the law of the land to meddle.
The police in Lagos State docked Sulaiman Maiyegun for assault and incitement at an Igbosere Magistrate’s Court, having allegedly beaten up his wife on May 5 and boasted about his ‘valour’ on his Facebook page. Maiyegun, after beating his wife, Mariam Omolara Gabriel, at Maiyegun Town, Jakande Estate in Eti-Osa Local Government, dared the police to arrest him in a post that went viral, prompting the Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT) to enlist the Area Commander of Area J. Police Station, ACP Gbolahan Odugbemi, in effecting his arrest.
In their case against Maiyegun before trial Magistrate Olufolake Oshin, the police charged him with unlawful assault of Mariam who he allegedly struck with a fist. “The defendant injured the victim on her forehead and posted an inciting and provoking publication about the incident on his Facebook page,” police prosecutor Shinaolu Adeoye said, arguing that the accused thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 173 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015. The prosecutor wanted the court to remand Maiyegun in prison pending his trial. But the accused reportedly pleaded not guilty and defence counsel Mustapha Danesi argued for him being admitted to bail on liberal terms as the matter at issue resulted from what he called a family crisis.
In her ruling, Magistrate Oshin granted the defendant bail in the sum of N500, 000 with two sureties in like sum while adjourning the case to May 22 for mention.
It is the court’s prerogative, of course, to determine the guilt or otherwise of Citizen Maiyegun. But it is clear enough from all accounts that there was indeed a physical burst up. The defence counsel only argued that it was ignited by ‘a family crisis.’ Whatever may warrant the scuffle, Maiyegun going on his social media handle to flaunt it and dare police arrest hints at a queer psychology. This is the psychology whereby masculinity is perceived proven by superior brawn against the opposite sex, and the wife apparently perceived as an exclusive asset (or liability, as the case may be) over which one has un-delimited power of will and having no obligation to answer to anyone, least of all the law. We hold that this is a dangerous mindset potentiated to extreme spousal abuse.
The common pattern all over the world is that victims of spousal abuse suffer behind a curtain of silence held in place by their living in close quarters with their abusers, especially under the lockdown necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, such that they do not have the space to raise the alarm about their plight without the abusers listening in. This is the pattern that has fuelled a recent spike in domestic violence over which authorities in many jurisdictions have raised the red flag. Only in April, the United Nations published new dataset estimating that there would be 15 million more cases of domestic violence around the world this year, resulting from pandemic restrictions. The UN Population Fund (UNFPA), in collaboration with some partners, including Johns Hopkins University in the United States, published the data projecting an average of 20 percent rise in violence over every three months of the lockdown in UN’s 193 member-states. These figures factor in the anticipated high levels of under-reported cases.
Maiyegun’s Facebook boast is a departure from the universal tendency of domestic abuse behind insidious veil of silence, it also sets a new standard in vulgarity of indecency. Neither record is of benefit to society.
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