Joy Ekulu
What could make a mother attempt to knife her own child after the father of the child refused to transfer the upkeep of the child to her? KOLA OYELERE writes.
IT started well for both Thomas and his then girlfriend, Joy Ekulu, in Katsina Ala, Benue State, where they both hailed from. After a short relationship, they got engaged and started living as husband and wife. Their union was later blessed with a child, a boy named Innocent.
However, after about three years of marriage, things fell apart, and the marriage broke down, leading to separation between the two, with Thomas heading to Kano for pastures green while Joy stayed in Katsina Ala.
The union hit the rock when after three years of the union, Thomas still refused to take necessary steps to formalise their union, one of which is the payment of Joy’s pride price. Joy added that her plea fell on deaf ears of Thomas, so she decided to separate from him since he would not marry her, while the child was in Thomas’s custody.
While Thomas secured the upkeep of innocent, Joy maintained contact with Thomas by sending money to her husband as part of her contributions to the upkeep of Innocent.
According to Joy, the money she was sending to Thomas for the upkeep of their son was not being judiciously used, hence the reason she felt that she should be allowed to keep the custody of Innocent. She also noted that rather than use the money for Innocent’s welfare, Thomas diverted the money to another venture, a situation she said infuriated her.
She then decided to visit Kano and bring Innocent to Katsina–Ala, where she resides.
On reaching Kano, where her ex-husband resides, she told him her mission and demanded for the child to be given to her. But her ex-husband declined. Perhaps, he must have said that the child was principally his and not hers. After so much appeal, Thomas still bluntly refused to release Innocent to Joy, 28.
And without wasting too much time, Joy did the unthinkable. He took a knife, grabbed Innocent and attempted to cut the boy’s intestine. But the boy was rescued and policemen were alerted. So, Joy became a visitor of the Kano State Police Command, where she was first detained and now facing interrogation for the reason she tried to take the life of her own child.
Speaking with journalists at a press conference on the incident, Kano State Police Commissioner, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, said a 28-year-old woman, Miss Joy Ekulu, who stabbed her biological son in the stomach in an attempt to divide the boy into two parts, was arrested.
According to him, Miss Ekulu admitted that she actually committed the said offence because she wanted to divide the boy to two equal parts for her and the father of the child.
Speaking on the the beginning of their problem, Joy said, ‘I got engaged to Thomas 11 years ago and we lived together as husband and wife for about three years before God eventually blessed our union. When the marriage was three years old, I told my husband to let us meet my parents and pay the bride price which would certify us as couple but he refused.”
She, however, said that she was full of regret after realising what she had done. “I didn’t know that it would not be easy. The intestine of Innocent was about coming out before people within the vicinity came out to rescue him. I regret causing unnecessary harm to my child because I didn’t know it would result into this situation. What followed was that I found myself in the police custody and right now, I don’t know what will be the end of the matter.”
The question many people are now asking is, was Joy Ekulu sane when he did the unthinkable act of attempting to take the life of her own son? As it is now, there is the likelihood that a mental test would be conducted on Joy to ascertain her mental state. It is then that people will be able to say whether her act was intentional or not.
via Tribune
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