One Torkwase Queen Awuna has died on December 24, after she was allegedly brutally beaten by her husband Lorember Ade, a police officer in the Operation Department of Benue State Police Command in Makurdi, Benue State.
According to Boldness Deterhama, who is her brother, he said after the beating, she was rushed to the Federal Medical Centre, Makurdi but later taken to Benue State University Teaching Hospital Makurdi, where she finally died on Christmas Eve, December, 24.
The deceased had been a victim of domestic abuse since her marriage to Ade. She suffered a miscarriage after one of his numerous assaults. Shortly after the incident, she took in again and delivered a set of twins but one died shortly after few hours later due to beatings she received all through the pregnancy.
Meanwhile, in 2015, police officers locked up the deceased, with her then five month-old-baby into jail, after she fought with her husband’s lover Jennifer Usu.
It was gathered that Torkwase was in the room with her husband when Jennifer, who also had a baby by the police officer, came into the house to see him. A fight ensued between the two women during which Jennifer brought out a razor blade to cut Torkwase, but she managed to snatch the weapon from her and slashed Jennifer’s face with it. Jennifer was rushed to a hospital by Torkwase’s policeman husband.
After the treatment, she reported the case to B Division police station and Torkwase was subsequently arrested.
Deterhama is calling on concerned authorities to ensure that justice is done for his sister, otherwise the family will take law into their hands.
Read the full report below:
The Murder of Torkwase Queen Awuna by her husband Iorember Ade: Justice is all I am asking for.
Before it is too late, I would like to call on the concerned authorities to ensure the timely arrest of Mr. Iorember Ade, a police officer in Operation Department at the Police Head Quarters in Makurdi, Benue State Capital, for terminating Torkwase’s life like an ordinary animal in the bush. The arrest should be made quickly before the perceived clash between the two families and their communities begins. Iorember Ade, who came willingly and asked of her heads in marriage, did so with the aim of sending her to her early grave now. As I write now, tension is rising in Ajio, Ishagev-Ya, Kwande Local Government Area of Benue Sate, where the family of the late Torkwase and that of her murderer, are residing.
Before I continue, one should not think that I am taking side here because my sister is involved. I am ready to challenge and fight anyone that would like to oppose me on this issue with proofs; the officer in question and his family with anybody that thinks I am not being truthful on this issue should come out and challenge me with proofs.
Before the latest beating that sent my sister, Torkwase to her early grave, there have been several others upon her by the same man called Iorember Ade, her husband. One of such beatings led to her miscarriage. After that, she took in again for the same man and delivered a set of twins but one died shortly after few hours. Therefore, after noticing the ill-treatments upon my sister by this officer, we, the members of her family, did everything possible to make her discontinue with the marriage where she was always receiving beatings as her food but all our efforts proved abortive and we have to let her be to avoid being accused of sabotaging her marriage.
Nevertheless, the brutality that led to the current incident occurred on November 8, 2017. According to what she told me concerning the incident before she died, she went and brought food from her parents’ house, and when the food got finished, her husband refused to buy more food for them in the house. According to her, she was worried about her kids after being slept with hunger for good four days. Thereafter, on November 8, 2017, the husband wanted to go to work and she told him about the food issue in the house but he ignored her as usual. After that she asked the husband to explain why he don’t like providing food for them in the house but always eat together with them the one she brings from her parents’ house? Thereafter, the husband got angry and replied her with punches. She was beating mercilessly by him to a point that she became weak and unfit to walk. Quickly, she was rushed to the Police Clinic at Police Head Quarters in Makurdi. She explained all this in the presence of her husband when her mother, Mercy Awuna, visited her at the Police Clinic in Makurdi. It will shock you to know that at the Police Clinic, the husband was not even having money to pay for her treatment. If not for the efforts made by her parents, she wouldn’t have even gotten the first aid treatment at the Police Clinic.
At the Police Clinic, the situation became more complicated and she was moved to the Federal Medical Centre within the same Makurdi Metropolis. From the Federal Medical Centre Makurdi, the husband came and took her out in the absent of her mother, who went back home to prepare food for her. Where was she taking to? To a native doctor for treatment.
Notwithstanding, at the native doctor’s place, the doctor detected and confirmed some dislocations in her body within the areas where she was given several punches by her husband but the conditions given before the treatment were not met and the husband abandoned her there for a week before he finally moved her to Benue State University Teaching Hospital Makurdi because of the pressure mounted on him by the family of the late Torkwase.
Similarly, sometime in 2015, a woman, Torkwase’s husband was having extra marital affairs with, came looking for him at his rented apartment where he was staying with Torkwase. According to the information I have gathered with proofs, the husband’s lover wanted to force herself into their room after telling her that her husband was not around and that was when a fight broke out between the two of them. Torkwase was able to overcome her husband’s lover thereby giving her a beating of her life. The husband’s lover finally went to B Division Police Station in Makurdi and reported her. The police came and arrested the late Torkwase alongside her five months old baby. Thereafter, I went to the police station to bail her from the police but police refused to grant her bail. The whole thing was happening in the presence of the husband who was only watching without doing anything. She was finally dumped into the police cell where she spent a night with her five months’ old baby. I did a story on that very incident and it was published in Sunday Sun Newspaper. The publication of that story caught the attention of some high ranking officers in the police force before her release was made possible.
I remembered telling her to report her husband to the bosses at his office for always abusing her and she did but disciplinary action has never been taken against him. Two weeks before her death, her father Mr. Daniel Awuna, went to the Police Head Quarters in Makurdi to report her husband officially, but he was mocked by the officers he met thereby deceiving him that the people he supposed to report to them were not around but forgetting that the same people my father wanted to see were seen within the vicinity at the time my father was asking after them. To make a long story short, something should be done now or else, retaliation is the available option.
