The rather shocking stories have been told of Nigerian men and women who were caught cheating on their spouses.
Last month, social media was abuzz with a video of a young lady
named Nkiru who was allegedly having an affair with her best friend’s
husband in Owerri, Imo State. The video which got men and women on
different social media platforms, talking and taking sides, caused, on
Facebook, some kind of bad blood between single ladies and married
women.
While some people were of the opinion that it was wrong to attack
someone in their home, strip her naked, like the aggrieved woman did,
video them and post the video online no matter what they may have done,
others, especially married women, argued that the lady got what she
deserved. They didn’t see anything wrong with splashing her naked photos
on the Internet.
But the story took a strange twist when a lady, Dorothy Njemanze,
said to run a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) stood up for the
victim and encouraged her to press charges of assault against her
friend, one Ngozi Akakem. When Ngozi saw that the police had been
invited into the case, she went into hiding. But she was later arrested.
Subsequent development saw the woman being remanded in prison after
she was arraigned before a magistrate court sitting in Owerri. Details
from the video showed the woman stripping her friend naked and
physically assaulting her while making a video of the incident.
It was gathered that she went to her friend’s house with thugs and
humiliated her at gunpoint. The defendant was arrested after the video
of the embarrassing incident went viral. Arraigned in court on 10 count
charges, she, however, pleaded not guilty.
After being granted bail with the sum of N1 million, the case was
adjourned till March 28, 2019. But she has been remanded in prison
pending when her bail conditions will be met.
Dealing with cheating spouses
Outside the emotional outpourings and firefights on social media,
Saturday Sun’s investigation shows that the issue of cheating for both
spouses is real even though there seems to be differences in the way
each victim has handled or is handling it. No matter on which side it
rubbed them, at least, none has gone to the extent of making a video of
it and showing it to the whole world. For many, there has been a ring of
hush-hush about the affair and its discovery.
Many of the victims agreed to speak with Saturday Sun on the
promise that their true identities will be kept secret. In this report,
while their first names are correctly used, their surnames have been
substituted with pseudonyms.
In July, 2018, Mrs. Beatrice Obi (not real surname), a mother of
four stormed out of her matrimonial home in shorts and a tight T-shirt
ready to confront the young lady who she suspects of trying to ‘steal’
her husband from her.
“I was prepared to engage in a fight with the lady,” she confessed.
“I was fed up with the way she kept calling and sending my husband lewd
messages even at odd hours.”
Obi revealed that sometimes, at midnight, her husband’s phone would
ring and he would walk away to go talk to the person at the end of the
other line. Whenever she confronted him about it, he would say, it is a
useless woman disturbing his phone. She believed him because she
trusted him.
But when she later discovered that the lady was gradually taking
over her husband’s heart, she became angry. She felt like a fool because
her husband had been lying to her all along. It was obvious that he was
having an affair with this lady. “Things got worse when I found out
that this lady who was dating my husband lived three streets away from
us,” Obi said. “I became furious. I wanted to beat her up and warn her
to stay away from my husband. That day, I was ready to fight, to put an
end to everything. But my neighbours stopped me from storming the lady’s
house.”
Obi who has been married for eight years added that she was
heartbroken when she discovered that apart from the lady, her husband
had lovers on whom he was spending some real money. She revealed that
she almost lost her mind when she discovered who her husband truly was
and how he had been lying to her for years.
“My husband does not have only one girlfriend, I learnt he has
several girlfriends. I almost lost my mind the period I discovered about
his cheating lifestyle. I would cry for days; I felt worthless. He
couldn’t hold his emotions one night; he blatantly told me that he loves
the woman that had been calling his phone. He confessed and said that
they met some months ago and that he had been hiding it from me because
he didn’t want to hurt my feelings,” she said.
On how she handled the heartbreak she felt during that period, she
told Saturday Sun that she didn’t leave her husband or call her marriage
quits because she doesn’t want to raise her children in a broken home.
She, however, stated that she no longer trusts her husband.
Like Obi, Mrs. Jumoke Alade (surname withheld) is used to her
husband’s womanizing nature since they started dating 14 years ago but
she thought he would change because of the way he loved her.
“I have been married to him for 12 years; we separated for two
years,” she said with a tinge of sadness in her voice. “It breaks my
heart to say that I’ve not been happy in my marriage since I got
married. People may say I was stupid for marrying him, knowing quite
well that he can’t stay with one woman. But I thought he would change; I
thought his love for me would change him.’’
On several occasions, Alade said her friends had called her on the
phone to report seeing her husband with a woman, either in front of a
hotel or entering a hotel. He is seen with different women all the time.
“Although I am tired of my husband’s philandering ways, I can’t divorce
him because I am a Christian and my religion forbids it. I decided to
always pray for him with the hope that he would change one day.”
She revealed that her only hope is to pray for him because it is a
battle she has to fight on her knees. She doesn’t believe in leaving her
home for another woman to come and reap the fruits of her labour and
she also doesn’t want her children to suffer. Alade is optimistic that
one day, things will get better and her cheating husband would find
Christ and stick to her for life just as he vowed on their wedding day.
According to her, “marriage is for better, for worse. I am seeing
the worse now but I believe my prayers will be answered one day and my
husband will leave side chicks alone and come back to me.”
But unlike Alade who is willing to pray her cheating husband back
home, Mr. Martins Onyinyechi sent his cheating wife packing two years
ago for hooking up with her boss. Onyinyechi said that his wife started
misbehaving when she was having sex with her boss. She would leave the
house any time she liked, come back home at night and won’t bother about
what he would eat or how his day went.
“I started suspecting her crooked movement months before but kept
quiet because I wanted to have proof. I wanted to be sure that the woman
I married five years earlier would lie to me like that.”
One day, Onyinyechi had access to his wife’s phone, which was pass
worded and discovered messages from her lover which happens to be her
boss. That day, he almost died. It was as if the world had ended.
“When I saw those messages, my heart started beating faster than
normal and it was as if my head was going to explode,” he said. “I
couldn’t stand my wife anymore. I sent her back to her people after
telling them the abominable thing she did. My two children are with me
today.”
In the case of Mr. Gbenga Alooma, he never caught his wife
red-handed cheating on him until his neighbours started telling him of
his wife’s philandering ways. He trusted her completely until he got a
text message telling him to go to a hotel close to his wife’s shop. The
sender insisted that his wife has been cheating on him with a man who
drops her off in her shop sometimes.
Alooma said that even though he didn’t believe what the person said
about his wife of three years, he decided to shame whoever it was that
sent him that message by proving them wrong.
“I got to the hotel and saw my wife coming down the stairs holding a
strange man’s hand,” he said. “They were talking and giggling like
teenagers in love. I stood there transfixed until they left. I ran after
them after I recovered from the shock and caught up with them in her
lover’s car. She was shocked to see me. She started crying and begging
me to let her explain what happened. We went home and she confessed
everything to me,” Alooma said.
Although he was hurt and betrayed by his wife’s actions, he decided
to give her a second chance. Alooma believes that without forgiveness,
no marriage will work. He didn’t tell his family or hers what happened
but they worked through that period together. Thirty six-year-old Nkechi
Asare who said she has been married to the love of her life, a Ghanaian
for nine years said she doesn’t like ladies who date married men. She
revealed that once when her husband cheated on her with one of his
salesgirls, she beat her up and threatened to kill her if she ever came
close to her man again.
She vowed that she would be the last person to befriend her
husband’s mistresses like some Nigerian women do. “My husband’s mistress
is my enemy. Even if I leave my husband and my marriage, if I meet his
lover anywhere and I have access to poison, I will not bat an eyelid
before poisoning her,” she told Saturday Sun. According to Asare, any
woman who has the guts to date any woman’s husband can kill his wife if
she gets the chance. Such ladies are capable of anything so they
shouldn’t be spared, she advised.
Why some people cheat on their partners
A clinical psychologist, Patricia Chiegboka said in some cases,
lack of sexual satisfaction may cause one’s partner to cheat. Both women
and men who enter into affairs hoped to improve their sex lives, he
noted. They may enjoy many other mutual activities but, for whatever
reason, the desire to enjoy additional sexual encounters may make
spouses to cheat on their partners, she insists.
Another thing she said could lead to extramarital affairs is lack
of emotional satisfaction in marital relationships. Seeking emotional
intimacy can be nearly as compelling a reason to have an affair as can
seeking physical intimacy, she warned.
Falling out of love with one’s spouse may also be another reason
people cheat on the ones they promised to remain faithful till death do
them part. “Some cheating men may no longer like the way their wives
look, after having children. Because of that, they may decide to go
after much younger and beautiful women outside their marriage.”
Some married people had fallen head over heels for the person with
whom they had the affair, she noted. This is because emotional intimacy
plus sexual closeness seems to be more important factors that lead some
spouses astray.
Chiegboka also said that in a relationship that is already
suffering, the desire to hurt a partner who is cheating might raise the
stakes significantly from mere lack of intimacy. Women who cheat on
their partners sometimes do it out of revenge, she said.
People who are curious and want new experiences have the tendency
to cheat on their partners too, she added. “Such people want something
new and this motivation moves them beyond curiosity into some type of
contest to measure their sexual prowess,” she said.
Extramarital affairs, she warned, clearly represent a complex mix
of desire, anguish, and need for connection. “Rarely are they apparently
entered into without conflict or even distress. They may mark the end
of a marital relationship except the people involved are willing to work
through it together.”
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Source: Sun News
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