Parents Of Pregnant Woman Strangled By Husband Return Dowry, Retrieve Body

Punch reported that the parents of Mrs. Irene Dashit, a teacher allegedly strangled by her husband, Victor Dashit, in Dadin-Kowa, Jos on July 2, have returned the dowry paid on her head by her husband’s family.



“By our tradition, when a man kills our daughter while married to him, the bride price must be returned to the husband’s family and her corpse retrieved for proper burial at her birth place. We have just returned the dowry.

“It means that we have severed the union; it means she is no more married to the husband. That is why we are taking her body to Maris, her birth place in Bokkos, Plateau State,” the District Head of Maris, Mr Amos Akila, said in Jos.

Akila expressed shock that the family of Dashit did not show any remorse over the incident, and never condoled the parents of the late woman.

“The husband’s family only showed up when invited to receive the dowry we returned to them,” he said.

Akila said that the woman’s family had resolved never to have anything to do with the alleged killer of their daughter.

“We gave her to him alive; she would have been buried in her husband’s hometown if she died of natural causes, but in this case, she was killed by the husband, and our tradition demands we return the bride price and bury our daughter at her father’s house.
“Our tradition forbids us from honouring the killer by burying our daughter in his house. We are saddened by the death of our daughter, but we have left everything to God. We want justice. We want the killer to pay for his crime,” he said.

Irene’s body left the Air Force Hospital, Jos mortuary on Saturday, to Maris, where she was buried.

The Plateau Police Command had, on July 6, confirmed the arrest of 40-year-old Victor Dashit, a staff of the National Industrial Court, Jos who allegedly strangled his eight months pregnant wife, Irene.

“Victor is in our custody and investigation is ongoing. We shall soon take him to court,” its spokesman, Terna Tyopev, said.