To many residents of the Okota area of Lagos, Mercy Nnadi’s issue is a forgotten one, as they assume that she did not survive the third degree burns she sustained from the attack by her spouse. But how wrong they are! The 36-year-old Mercy, whose husband killed their only son eight months ago, and burnt her with hot pressing iron over allegation that she was having an affair with his father, the very woman who once looked a shadow of her old self, is back to life.
[WARNING! Violent content & Explicit photo]
She is presently occupying a one-room apartment in Agege area of Lagos, courtesy of three Non-Governmental Organisations: Project Alert on Violence Against Women, Centa for Development, and Zaharawomen. Aside the apartment, the NGOs also gave her the sum of N150, 000 to start life afresh.
Mercy Nnadi (second on the left) receives a cheque for N150,000 from Mrs Josephine Effah-Chukwuma (first right); with Nkiru of Centa for Development (second right) and a representative of WAPA.
Even in the light of all this, in this exclusive interview Mercy said nothing could fill the vacuum created by the demise of her son, Ebuka, who was barely one-year-old then. Although she stated that she had forgiven her husband for making her go through untold anguish, she vowed never to reunite with him again.
Recalling the incident of Saturday, April 7, 2012, which almost sent her to an unprepared grave, Mercy recalled amidst tears: “On that fateful Saturday evening, my husband told me to cook yam for supper before leaving the house. After a long wait for him to come back so that we could eat together, I ate mine and slept with my baby.
"When he came back, he ate, put on the power generating set before going to bed. Later, a neighbor knocked on the door to inform us that power had been restored, and he [the husband] went to put off the power generating set. He came inside and started ironing customers clothes because he is a dry cleaner.