Madam Caroline Madu, the 61-year-old mother of late gospel singer Osinachi Nwachukwu, and the deceased’s sister, Favour Madu, have stated that her widower, Peter Nwachukwu, is to blame for her death.
They accused Peter of mistreating his late wife and prohibiting her from freely communicating with her parents.
They spoke while testifying as prosecution witnesses in Nwachukwu’s trial before a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Wuse Zone 2, Abuja.
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Madam Madu, who appeared as the first prosecution witness, said the defendant claimed to be an evangelist when he came for her daughter but turned out to be someone else. She was led in evidence by the prosecuting lawyer, Mrs Aderonke Imana.
Madam Madu, who testified in Igbo and was translated by two interpreters, said:
“Peter came to steal my child. He told me that he is an evangelist. That was why I gave her my child. He used to beat my child like a carpenter would beat wood.
“When she was pregnant, he used to beat her. I was begging her to come and see me. Her husband did not allow her to visit me and she would not come for the fear that her husband will kill her. Another thing her husband told her was that if she did not go alive, she will go in death. When she told me, I told her it was better to come back alive.”
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At one time, Madam Madu revealed she dispatched one of her daughters, Favour Madu, “to go and bring her.”
She stayed with me in Enugu for a year and three months after they returned her.
But her husband arrived with three pastors to ask Osinachi to return with him.
I begged my daughter not to return since her husband had stated that if she returned alive, she would die.
“My daughter said what God has joined together, no one should put asunder, that she has married him and she is willing to live with him. When she went back, her husband started maltreating her like he used to do but shame did not allow her to tell me.”
Madam Madu, who became emotional at times, also told the court that when Osinachi delivered her third child, the deceased called her and complained that she was hungry and needed assistance.
In response, the witness stated that she purchased food and transferred it to Osinachi in her matrimonial house in Abuja via one of her children, Chibuzo.
