NigeriaN poilce have arrested Peter Nwachukwu the husband of the late popular gospel singer, Osinachi, over the death of his wife.
Osinachi died on Friday at the age of 42, after spending days on admission at a hospital in Abuja.
Allegations of domestic violence as the cause of her death soon surfaced after her death was announced and various sources have come to substantiate the claims, leading to the arrest of her husband.
The Police in Abuja confirmed to the Punch newspaper that Peter was arrested on Sunday following a report made by a relation of the late singer.
“He is now in our custody. The younger brother of the deceased reported the matter and we have commenced investigation,” The FCT Police Public Relations Officer, Josephine Adeh, told the newspaper.
Colleagues of Osinachi, who was a lead singer at the Dunamis International Headquarters, Abuja, accused her husband of beating her.
The report of her abuse from her husband has re
Punch also quoted a popular singer, Frank Edwards, in a live Instagram video, alleged that Osinachi’s husband abused her on several occasions.
He said, “One time in a studio, this man slapped her just because she wanted to record the song in Igbo against his will. She does not do anything on her own.
“She would say, please beg my husband. She was at his mercy. I didn’t know the intensity of what she was going through; I didn’t know how somebody would be jealous of the wife he claimed to love.
“There are a lot of stories where people told her this and that, but what I know was that the control was too much. The other time somebody wanted me to get her for an event, and I contacted her, but she said ‘beg my husband.’
“She couldn’t even tell people what she was going through. I only got to know because Aunty Joy contacted me to promote her song. That was when I got a glimpse into what was happening.”
Punch also quoted another gospel artiste, Asu Ekiye, who called for the arrest of her husband.
“If what I hear about domestic abuse is anything to go by, then I hereby endorse the call for the arrest of the husband of Osinachi immediately for questioning,” Ekiye said.
Similar condemnations have come from a former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, who said that the allegation of domestic violence worsened the pain of Osinachi’s death, calling on churches to take issues of violence against women serious.
In an interview with Vanguard newspaper, a sister of Osinachi also alleged that singer died from beatings she received from her husband, contrary to earlier reports that cancer was the cause of death.
“She did not die of cancer. The husband, Mr Peter Nwachukwu hit her with his leg on the chest. All these while, he had been beating her but my sister hid all that she was passing through from us,” Vanguard quoted the woman, Ms. Favour Made, Osinachi’ elder sister, as saying.
“Before now, we told her to come out of the marriage, we told her that they are not divorcing, that it’s just separation. But she felt that God is against divorce.”
“We told her that separation is not a sin but just for her to stay alive and take care of her children. She will always tell us to relax that the man will change.
“So, when the man kicked her on the chest, she fell down and he took her to the hospital but he did not even tell us. It was her friend who lives in Ebonyi state that called her twin sister, because Osinachi has a twin sister, to ask, ‘did your sister tell you that Peter hit her on the chest? the sister then told her no. It was the hitting on the chest that killed her. My brother had to ask doctor what killed her and doctor said that there were clusters of blood on her chest. Unfortunately, they did not tell the doctor that she was kicked on the chest because; doctor could have known what to do if he had idea of what happened. Each time we talked to her, she will be pleading for peace and if we move to act, she will tell us no, that we should calm down,” Ms Made further told the newspaper.
