By Ikeugonna Eleke
Residents of Awka in Anambra State on Monday evening rescued a 26-year old mother of one who dropped a suicide note threatening to kill herself and her son because she was constantly being beaten by her husband.
The woman, Praise Eberechi Eze, who is said to be a serving corps member, had posted on her Facebook account saying she would kill herself and her two-year old son so she could go to a place where she could find peace.
Narrating her ordeal on her Facebook timeline, Eberechi had earlier written in April this year, ‘We live in a society where no one cares. You live in an abusive marriage, no one cares. Society, friends and relatives.
‘They tell you to pray and endure while the assault is on the increase. You pack home and they tell you to go back and make your family work. Verbal abuse increases; you are called a bad wife, bastard; you smell awful, you feel you made a 2.1 in school, come and get money for clearance.
‘When family fails you because you are married, you damn the consequence, take a life and serve the jail term.’
Last Monday morning, Eberechi reportedly dropped a suicide note which read, ‘Soon I will die, and I will take my little man along. I won’t leave him to the suffering of verbal abuse; we will go to a place where there is peace unlimited. When I die, don’t write an epistle for me. When I die, I should be buried in my father’s house to avoid havoc. When I die, don’t cry, because all is well in life and death.’
Fides learnt that she deleted the post minutes after, triggering fears that she might have gone away to harm herself, but refused to take calls from friends.
Facebook users who had earlier made screenshots of her post, sent it out, asking for help for her, until late Monday night when she was tracked down to a primary health centre in Okpuno, Awka, where some residents who rescued her had taken her for treatment.
A Facebook user, Cynthia Raphaels, who first spread the post, stated in a subsequent post that she had been tracked down to the health centre, and had detailed two female volunteers to keep an eye on her.
As at the time of filing this report, she had been rescued and taken to the ‘B’ Division Police Station where she made an entry, and had also been moved to a temporary residence as she refused returning to her husband.