A close friend to the late Osinachi Nwachukwu identified as Glory has narrated the sad experience the deceased endured in marriage.
The gospel singer had died after spending some days at an undisclosed medical facility in Abuja.
The singer’s husband, Peter Nwachukwu was later arrested by the police after various claims on social media alleged that the she was continuously assaulted by her husband.
The case was transferred on Monday from the police division to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department.
Glory informed Vanguard that things were so bad in marriage that the husband once poured a bucket of cold water on Osinachi while she was asleep.
According to her: “Osinachi’s husband sometimes poured a full bucket of cold water on her while she was deeply asleep.
“Osinachi told me that he (husband) threatened her that she would die and he would marry another wife. He called her an imbecile. He even told Osinachi’s twin sister that he was going to separate them. He called Osinachi a pig (smelly dirty woman) publicly.
“When we went for music ministration and programmes, Peter would put the children on dry fasting from morning till evening. He would wake them up by 2:00am to pray for eight straight hours while he himself would be fast sleeping. And if they dared sleep off, and he caught them, he would flog them as well as their mother.
“One of Osinachi’s sons has about 25 scars on his back from the strokes of cane which are testimonies of how he manhandled the children. Another of their sons bears 12 cane scars on his own back.
“He monitors them excessively. If not going to church or school, these children don’t leave the house.
“Osinachi’s husband used to lock me out of their house when I went visiting. He told me to my face that he didn’t want to see me in their house
“He was fond of spitting on her head and face to show his feelings of disgust towards her, but in spite of all the humiliation, Osinachi did not cry out for help.
“One day, she told me that there were three reasons she didn’t want to leave the abusive marriage.
“First, Osinachi said she didn’t want to be the reason people would curse God. Two, she believed divorce was unacceptable to God. Three, she didn’t want whenever, she was ministering people would who gossip her situation as a woman who couldn’t keep her marriage and then undermined her service to God. Osinachi was simply avoiding stigmatisation.
“While Osinachi and family may have been oblivious that her husband was previously married, because he kept the truth away from them, a close friend of the family said he knew about the mess since 2012, but didn’t mention anything about it to the late gospel music celebrity.
“Peter had said something to me about his first marriage in 2012, but I couldn’t tell if Osinachi was aware of that union.”
Asked why he kept the secret away from Osinachi, the source said: “I didn’t know how she would react. Peter told me that his first marriage was so terrible. That was when I came into Dunamis newly at the Area 1 church in Garki. Till date, he never said anything more to me about that union. It was only yesterday, I now recalled how he gave me the hint a long time ago.”
