The police in Calabar, Cross River State, have arrested a nurse,
Dorothy Hayford Nkanu, who allegedly poured acid on her lover,
Edmund Educhukwu (pictured above) on suspicion that he was
dating another lady.
Neighbours later rushed Edmund to the University of Calabar
Teaching Hospital, UCTH, where doctors have been battling to
save his badly damaged face and left eye. The right eye was
damaged beyond redemption.
Narrating his ordeal at the Intensive Care Unit of the UCTH, the final
year student of Education Technology in the Faculty of Education at
the University of Calabar said he and Dorothy have been lovers for
some years and that they spent the night before the day of the
attack together.
“We even had passionate sex that night. It was in the morning that
she did this to me without any fight”.
On what may have prompted the lady to inflict such damage on
his body, he said that “Dorothy had once complained that some
people had told her that I was dating another lady whom I intend
to marry and abandon her after these several years together. But I
reassured her that it was not true that people were only trying to
destroy our relationship. It did not occur to me that she was still
harbouring the grudge”, he said.
He said the morning the incident happened, they woke from bed
without any sign of trouble and he led her on morning devotion.
“It was when I was rounding off the prayers with my eyes still
shut that she sneaked out and brought the paint rubber where she
hid the acid and poured it on me.”
He said his girlfriend who is from Agwagwune in Biase area, Cross
River State attacked him while he was not wearing a shirt, so that
the acid would have maximum impact on his body.
After pouring the acid on me she said “if the God you are praying
to supports your plan, I will now see the woman that will accept
you with your eyes blind and face destroyed’ and she ran away”.
Doctors at the UCTH confirmed that one of Edmund’s eyes had
been completely destroyed while the second one could be
salvaged.
“He needs a skin transplant and adequate care for the other eye to
be restored at least for him to see with it and that cannot be done
here but outside this country, perhaps in UK or USA”, PMNews
source said.
DSP John Umoh, the Public Relations Officer for the Cross River
Police Command said the woman has been arrested and is
currently in detention.