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Benue State Governor Ortom faces criticism for ‘reconciling’ victim of domestic violence with her abuser
Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom has come under fire after he reportedly reconciled an abusive relationship between Ifeanyinwa Angbo and her husband, Pius Angbo.
On Sunday, a recorded video of battered Ifeanyinwa Angbo alleged that her husband, a Benue State Channels Television reporter, Pius Angbo physically assaulted her because she advised him not to spend recklessly on other women.
She said in between sobs that her husband sat on her incision even though she had just had a baby through cesarean section four weeks earlier.
“Hello people, my name is Ifeyinwa. I am a doctor. I have been married to Pius Angbo of Channels TV for six years and for six years, I have not known peace in this marriage. It’s been from one woman to another. I just had a baby. It was a Caesarean section just about 4 weeks ago. Just because I told him to spend wisely and not on women so recklessly considering we have four children, that is why I got this beating. He tried to strangle me and all that, sat on my incision, the children were crying.”
However, in a move to pacify the family, Governor Ortom invited the couple to the state government house and had a meeting with them.
Ortom’s Senior Special Assistant on New Media, Jimin Geoffrey, who shared details of the reconciliation on Facebook on Monday said that the Governor counselled the victims “to settle their differences amicably and shun violence. “
The statement said that Pius apologised to his wife and the entire women folk and Ifeanyinwa accepted her husband’s apology.
However, this reconciliation has come under fire on social media after the pictures showed the wife still sad. The governor was accused of being an enabler of domestic violence.
The governor was blasted for throwing its weight of authority behind a culture of domestic abuse against women; rather than prosecute the husband and make him a deterrent for other abusers.
The move comes in contrast with the reaction of Channels Tv where the husband works. The station released a statement promising to investigate the matter and say that it does not condone violence against women or anyone in general.
