An Iboko High Court in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, has sentenced a 39-year-old man, Chituru Mbam, to six months imprisonment without an option of fine for forcefully ejecting his wife, Mbam Ozoemena, from their matrimonial house and destroying the property.
The couple who married in 2009 and have five children between them have been having marital issues for years, which eventually led to the forced eviction, Channels TV says.
Court proceedings revealed that Mbam, who was with two unidentified males, had stormed the family residence at midnight on January 6, 2026 and evicted his wife shortly after he moved into a freshly built house.
He also had her arrested and detained at Police Headquarters in Abakaliki after the eviction.
Mbam, while in police detention, allegedly returned to the property and removed the roof, doors, windows and other important fittings, leaving the building utterly uninhabitable.
The event prompted quick action from a local human rights organization, the Rose Foundation for the Protection of Women and Children.
The organisation’s Executive Secretary, Prof. Mike Ajanwachukwu, had written a formal appeal to the Commissioner of Police in Ebonyi State, which led to the arrest and prosecution of Mbam.
Delivering judgement on Monday, presiding Judge, Justice Ruth Okeh, found the defendant guilty of the charges.
In addition to the six months jail term, the court ordered Mbam to pay his wife N500,000 damages and also ordered him to get a proper home for her.
Reacting to the ruling, counsel to the complainant, Mrs. Ijeoma Mike-Ajanwachukwu, congratulated the judiciary for doing justice, stressing that no spouse has the right to legally evict another from a house they share.
Mrs. Mike-Ajanwachukwu noted that the defendant committed an offence punishable under Section 6 (1) of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Law of Ebonyi State (2018), which expressly bans a spouse from ejecting another by force.
He pushed his wife out of the matrimonial home, pulled down the building and moved into a new house with another woman.’
He sent in the police and goons to push her out, thereby making her homeless.
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