Accused of having a hand in their husbands’ deaths, widows in some parts of Nigeria are stripped, robbed and subjected to humiliation and violence. Three widows recount the violations they were subjected to by their communities following their husbands’ deaths.
By Edoamaowo Udeme
In March 2022, a video of Ajuese Udoji Egwatu went viral. She had been stripped and paraded in the streets of Aguleri, in Anambra State, South-East Nigeria. Her crime? An unproven claim that she killed her husband of eight years Udoji Egwatu, through adultery.
Before he died, Ajuese’s ailing husband was being treated by a traditional healer. This healer claimed that he had a vision in which Ajuese confessed to sleeping with another man. He said that Ajuese had committed orakwu, which killed her husband. Traditionally, orakwu means that if a man’s wife cheats on him and he eats food she has cooked, he will die.
As soon as her ailing husband died, Ajuese’s in-laws and their neighbours accused her of orakwu. They took her phone and forced her to hand over the ATM card (and its PIN) for the joint account she operated with her husband. The bank account held her life savings and proceeds from her husband’s music business.
Ajuese was then frogmarched to the Ajaani Ukwu shrine of a traditional deity for cleansing to appease the gods. There, she was forced to take an oath and confess to killing her husband. She pleaded innocence and said that she had never cheated on her husband.
“There was a man from Amanze who lived on our compound, who was making sexual advances. I pushed him away and warned him not to try it. I was afraid to tell my husband because of what he might do. When my husband died, the man ran away and the deity used that against me. I didn’t do it. I know the implications. I wouldn’t have tried it,” said Ajuese.
Her pleas of innocence fell on deaf ears. The mob took over to mete out jungle justice for her alleged crime. The women in the family stripped her and joined their male relatives in parading her on the streets.
Jungle justice, which is common in Nigeria, happens when a mob takes the law into their hands by beating, humiliating or even lynching an alleged criminal without following due process.
An assessment of the traditional penal code governing adultery among the Igbo in south-eastern Nigeria noted that traditionally, the community observed certain customs, norms and values. Any conduct that went against the norm was prohibited and penalised. Adultery by a married woman was considered sacrilege, with the woman in question being seen to have offended not just her husband and family but society as a whole.
Traditionally, penalties for adultery varied from the infliction of madness, and denial of access to children and property to ejection from matrimonial homes.
In modern Nigeria, adultery is handled differently by the law, depending on which of the two Penal Codes are applied. In Northern Nigeria’s Penal Code (Section 387 and 388), a person found guilty of adultery is liable to imprisonment for two years and/or a fine. On the other hand, the Criminal Code of Lagos State of Nigeria does not prosecute adultery. Instead, if a spouse can prove that adultery occurred and they find it intolerable, they have grounds for divorce.
Ajuese’s ailing husband’s death put her in the crosshairs of the mob who accused her of adultery without evidence and without a fair hearing. This, as noted by a comparative study of jungle justice in Nigeria and the United States of America, usually happens when a mob wants “to offset the inadequacy of the formal justice system and to serve social justice by using informal means to punish deviants ignored by the formal justice system.”
However, acts of jungle justice run contrary to Section 8 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, which states that a suspect shall be accorded humane treatment, having a right to dignity of his person. It also provides that a suspect shall not be subjected to torture, cruel or degrading treatment.
According to lawyer and human rights activist Barr. Gladys Emmanuel, these extrajudicial measures have little to do with justice and more to do with harmful traditional practices targeting widows.
“In this part of the world, widows are subjected to the most inhumane situations with their basic rights constantly being violated on the allegation that they are responsible for the demise of their spouse,” said Barr. Emmanuel.
While the mob was driving Ajuese out of her home, Anwulika Euphemia Udanoh, a Facebook influencer, author and human rights activist, who was visiting her hometown Aguleri, heard about the incident in the neighbouring village. She decided to intervene.
“I started looking for Ajuese, but she was nowhere to be found,” she recalls.
She found the traumatised widow more than 100 kilometres away and asked her to share the names of the perpetrators. They were from her husband’s family.
Anwulika helped Ajuese register a complaint with the police, open a personal bank account, and raised funds for her treatment on Facebook. Some politicians from the state also chipped in – Senator Stella Oduah visited Ajuese and offered her a cheque of N1 Million ($2, 296.21). However, the politicians did nothing more; none brought the issue of attacks on widows before parliament or pushed for the enforcement of laws against the perpetrators. Nevertheless, Anwulika’s efforts led to the arrest of the perpetrators.
“I mobilised the police by giving them some money for transportation and seven perpetrators were arrested and charged in court. They were remanded in Anambra State Prison,” she said.
At the police station, the perpetrators said that Ajuese’s husband had been killed by Arusi, a traditional deity, and not by the orakwu they had accused Ajuese of. They added that they had exhumed the corpse for cleansing, indicating that he wasn’t killed by the orakwu.
The perpetrators are still in remand, while Ajuese is recuperating from the physical injuries and emotional trauma. She moved back to her parents’ homestead, a few villages away from the home she had made with her husband.
Another widow – 34-year-old Chioma Asomugha from Ubahuekwem, Ihiala Local Government, Abia State – was in June 2021 forced to drink the water used in washing her husband’s corpse as a way of proving that she had no hand in his death.
Much earlier in 1998, when Ekom’s husband Johnson died, his family in Edebom, in Nsit Ibom Local Government in Akwa Ibom State, accused her of killing him through adultery.
“I was locked up with my husband’s corpse and forced to sleep in that room for days. I wasn’t allowed access to my two children and family. My family initially protested, so I sent word to them to allow them (in-laws) to do whatever they wanted because I was innocent,” said Ekom, who requested to use one name.
“On the day of burial, I was brought into the open where everyone was gathered. My family was there with the traditional rulers and villagers. They said if I had killed him, I wouldn’t survive a week after his burial. I was made to jump over the corpse after a few incantations,” she said.
Ekom added that the weeks following a husband’s death are a trying time for widows, and she often thinks that the mob would have found a way to kill her so that people would believe that she killed her husband.
“Twenty-four years later, I am still alive. I miss my husband and I refuse to remarry. My children, who were aged five and seven at the time, vaguely remember what happened and vehemently refuse to stay at their home even when I compel them to visit their paternal home,” said Ekom.
These incidents shed light on the plight of widows following their husbands’ deaths. Barr. Emmanuel reiterated that while many blame the practice on the slow pace of accessing justice, it has more to do with harmful traditional practices. She added that in any case, the affected widows are the ones who suffer from a criminal justice system that is slow to respond to their plight.
“While many question the prevalence of this practice and blame it on the slow pace of accessing justice, it is important to note that there are myriad factors responsible for jungle justice against widows. Most notable amongst these is the existence of harmful traditional practices that fuel widows’ maltreatment. Also, dismissive attitude and slow pace in providing responses by key stakeholders in the criminal justice system is largely responsible for this menace,” she said.
While one study showed that most respondents (76 per cent) agreed that jungle justice goes against the rights of the victims, many blamed its prevalence on the slow and ineffective dispensation of justice in the formal judicial system. In another study, researchers found that in addition to lack of trust in law enforcement agencies, jungle justice was driven by chronic anger due to the economic situation, high levels of illiteracy and lack of awareness of laws, and religious and cultural beliefs which lead people to take matters in their own hands.
Christina Chibuzo Uzo-Okamgba, Founder and Executive Director of Tabitha Empowerment Centre, an NGO that offers legal and other forms of support to widows, told The Scroll that the culture of silence hampers interventions.
“The challenge is the prevalent culture of silence in our communities, but we provide legal support for aggrieved widows by leveraging our internal pro bono lawyers scheme or making referrals to partner organisations,” she said.
“This year, Tabitha Empowerment Centre has empowered nine indigent widows with skills and seed capital to foster financial independence. It has equally provided rehabilitation for widows who suffered abuse in the hands of their in-laws upon their husbands’ demise.”
Implementation of laws against these forms of violence is another challenge. Researchers in the previously mentioned studies found that the prevalence of jungle justice has led to the loss of respect for the rule of law and reduced social harmony by breaching the right to a fair hearing and treatment.
To deal with jungle justice, a study published in the International Journal of Sociology and Anthropology recommended educating the public to respect the rule of law and protect human rights . The study also called for public education to understand that a suspect should be surrendered to law enforcement agencies for formal prosecution and not dealt with through mob justice.
Further, the study recommended that law enforcement officers and the judiciary dispense justice quickly. The authors also recommended that police establish trust with communities in their roles of crime prevention and control, and keep the activities of community security groups and vigilantes under control. Researchers also suggested that the government improve living standards and provide welfare benefits to curb mob justice.
This article was produced as part of the W/A GBV Reporting Fellowship with support from the Africa Women’s Journalism Project (AWJP) in partnership with the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) through the support of the Ford Foundation.
