You Must Drink Water Used To Bath Your Husband’s Corpse – Family Insists

CYRIACUS IZUEKWE

According to some old Igbo traditions, when a woman is suspected to have a hand in the death of her husband and she denies it, the only way to prove her innocence is to drink the water used to bath the corpse of the husband.

P.M.EXPRESS reports that this is what is playing out with a 34-year old widow, Chioma Asomugha and her husband’s family in Ubahuekwem in Ihiala area of Anambra State.

Mrs. Chioma said the brothers of her deceased husband, Charles, told her to drink the water to prove she was not responsible for his death.

It was gathered that the widow lived with her late husband and four children at the Ajangbadi area of Ojo, Lagos, before he died in a suspicious manner, which the family suspected that he may have been killed by his wife, Chioma.

Mrs. Chioma said the burial was billed to hold on Monday 14th June 2021, and that the in-laws had already chased her out of their home and insisted that she will not be part of the burial arrangement.

She said: “They insisted that before I will be allowed to come in, that I will drink the water used in bathing my late husband’s corpse”.

Chioma has cried out and called the attention of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Awka and her Oraifite people to the matter.

Mrs. Laura Ugwuanyi, Coordinator of NHRC in Anambra, described the family’s demand as unfortunate. She regretted that efforts to resolve the matter did not yield positive results as the family was not cooperating.

It was gathered that when NHRC waded into the matter, the family told them that they have strong suspicion that it was Chioma that killed her husband; that if she is denying it, she should drink the water used to bath her husband’s corpse, which will resolve their suspicion.

But Chioma insisted that she did not kill her husband and will not drink the water used to bath his corpse. The family then concluded that she refused to drink the water because she knew what happened to her husband.