Friends defend Nigerian lady who ‘divorced’ her husband at Airport in London upon arrival

The dramatic case of a Nigerian man, Henry Osah, who arrived in the United Kingdom with his kids to reunite with his wife but was dumped at the airport by the wife who took only the kids with her is continuing to generate reactions.

Even as the lady in question has spoken up to defend her actions, a number of her friends are also speaking up in her defence.

The story was broken on an online community for Nigerians in the UK by a lady with the Twitter handle @jayydubby.

She wrote:

“Hello everyone,

A family friend of mine is in urgent need of a job with sponsorship. Last month, he arrived in the UK with his children as dependents and his wife went to pick them up at the airport and asked to see their children’s passports, which he handed over without any suspicion. She then told him that their marriage was over and wanted nothing to do with him. She took their children and abandoned him at the airport. He just come to the UK for the first time to join his wife, who came last year to study. He helped pay her fees and sold off everything he had to join her.

Today, the Home Office sent him a letter saying that he has until 1st of January, to return to Nigeria. He has nothing to go back to and may never see his children again.

I am pleading with anyone who can help him with a job referral so that he can stay and fight for his children. If you know of any job openings or can put him in touch with someone who might be able to help, please reach out to me. I would be incredibly grateful. 🙏🏼😥.”

Many netizens reacted to the post with cynicism, insisting that the marriage must have broken down before now for a woman to take that action.

JayDubby responded:

“For those saying it’s unbelievable, these are some of their chats before he travelled. They never quarrelled. She feigned happiness and was even asking which soup he would like to eat.

A Twitter user with the handle @tiffanyibeh responded with some venom, accusing JayDubby of not telling the whole truth.

She wrote: “A family friend of yours ?? And you want to say you Donno how he beats up his wife back in Nigeria?? He’s been beating her up for years!! And coming to the UK was her chance of getting freedom! She did what she did just to be with her kids again!”

When JayyDubby tried to rubbish her version of events, @tiffanyibeh responded:

“Do u want to see evidence of bruises? Do you want to listen to some recordings?? Long before he came those evidences got to the police already! Are you also aware he tried to hurt her at the airport again too ??? My dear you are no family friend if u donno this story.”

@Jayydubby again wrote:  “Lol. So that idea of her going to the airport in clutches was because of this?”

@tiffanyibeh: “She broke her leg! Evidence dey!!! No dey cap!!!”

@tiffanyibeh: “If you say you are a family friend and you don’t know this story then you are a liar! If you are not married yet may you marry a man like him.

Everyone is very much aware of how he hits his wife, down to his siblings and parents and they keep saying he’d change for years now! My dear you’d do exactly what she did if you were in her shoes.

Another friend @peaceobule also spoke up. He wrote:

“This Family friend named Henry Osah is a  serial wife-beater and a manipulative husband. I’m deliberately not getting involved with this but if I’m pushed I will share receipts of his wickedness. Your family friend deserves everything that came to him. I hope he is deported to Nigeria.

How can Henry Osah use the kids as a bargaining chip with his wife. She struggled to go to the UK and since then you have held her to ransom. You deprived her access to the kids because you said if she doesn’t also help you to the UK, she wouldn’t see her kids.

The woman at the centre of it all has also spoken up.

She wrote:

“I have taken and endured a lot of physical, emotional, psychological, and mental abuse from Henry Osah. My ordeal started in early October 2016 when I was 8 months pregnant with our son (our second child).

Henry wanted to travel to Ekiti for his friend’s wedding, whose new wife was from Ekiti, but we were managing and struggling financially. I felt every kobo we could feed with would be of great help considering we had a daughter 1 year 7 months at the time, and we were expecting a baby soon.

I was a final year student, I asked that we save the money he would use for travelling to a wedding as we didn’t even have money to feed well at home, this led to an argument that escalated really quickly.

The next thing he beat me up at 8 months pregnant, with his knee on my tummy. This was the first time, so he begged and pleaded with me, I forgave him and I told no soul about it.

I didn’t feel my baby move for 3 days after the beating and I was scared, I felt the worst had happened to my baby and I cried for 3 days that my baby had died. I took myself to the hospital to do a scan, found out my baby was alive with a faint heartbeat due to the trauma, I kept bleeding and stayed in silence with it because he begged me to keep it silent. I was dying slowly.”

She recalled that they made up and she forgot about the issue until she gave birth and returned home.

She said her husband was not happy with her choice of hospital because it was more expensive than where she delivered her last baby.

She said she chose the second hospital because she almost died in the first hospital when she was bleeding after delivery and they wanted to refer her because they had no surgeon to operate on her.

According to her, she settled for another hospital with all the necessary services should things take a turn for the worse. She said it was a good decision because things again took a turn for the worse and she was operated on to save her.

She said her husband abandoned her at the hospital at the time because of the money they were to pay, which was N100,000.

She claimed that after that episode, beating became routine for her, and that she was so severely beaten at a point that she went to the police at Ogba Divisional Headquarters.

She said the men there were querying her about what she did to warrant the beating and were not concerned. According to her, they later summoned him and her and called in a counsellor, but when they got home the man still beat her for reporting him to the police.

She claimed she decided then that she would have to travel abroad to save herself from being beaten.

She recalled other instances that he beat her and locked her out of their home and she had to get an okada or a taxi to go to her parents’ home far away.