A woman goes to babysit for her son-in-law. But she ends up carrying,
in the deal, two babies for the same man: one in her arms and the other
in her stomach. It’s a story with various angles and tangles to it, a
tragedy of immense proportion, with many loops and layers. And,
untangling it, understanding it, is not going to prove an easy task for
many a mind.
Mr. Christopher Chori, son-in-law to Mr. Silvanus Kwange is in a very
serious dilemma right now after impregnating his father-in-law’s second
wife, Priscilla Kwange. If he can turn back the hands of time to avert
the emotional trauma he is going through, he would have gladly done so.
But as things stand, it is already too late. The horse has already
bolted, locking the gate after that is meaningless.
Kwange’s marriage misfortunes
Mr. Kwange, a Tiv from Taraba State, has been married to his second wife
for about 10 years. Their marriage came after he lost his first wife,
Rose Kwange, to a fatal motor accident. But before she met her untimely
death, the late Rose had a daughter and the only child with Mr. Kwange.
It was after her death that her widower husband got married to
Priscilla. But unfortunately, in the past 10 years, the couple never
had a child. And this development had always caused quarrels in their
marriage as the man’s family members strongly believes that the fault is
Priscilla’s. They cited Rose’s daughter as proof of Kwange’s virility.
Kwange who was in a quandary over his wife’s inability to conceive,
equally believed that she is the problem and made several attempts to
send her packing. But Chori, their son-in-law, a Mada from Kokona Local
Government Area of Nasarawa State who got married to Faith, the man’s
only daughter, prevailed on him not to do so. He was said to always
intervene, telling his father-in-law that God is the only One who gives
children. He is said to have also advised him to seek medical attention
or try some fertility drugs if he was not too keen on seeing medical or
fertility experts. But he had always refused, noting that there was no
problem with his body and citing Faith as a proof of the point he was
trying to make.
Chori was said to always been on the phone with his father-in-law and
mother-in-law trying to appeal to them to see reasons and that their
inability to have a child should not constitute a clog in the wheel of
their marital bliss. All the same that did not deter Kwange from looking
for other ways out of the problem. Unconfirmed sources told Saturday
Sun that he is into all sorts of extramarital relationship with other
women in his bid to get a child but so far none had produced the
expected result.
On Priscilla’s part, as Africans would say, during those years, she
traversed seven lands and seven seas in her search of a child she would
call her own. In her desperation to keep her home, she did a lot but
without any of her numerous medical efforts yielding tangible result.
Sources say there is no known fertility hospital she has not visited in
Taraba, Makurdi, Abuja and Jos, with the help of their son-in-law,
Chori. But it was all to no avail. It was in the course of these
fruitless search for solution that the devil chose to strike in a most
embarrassing and shameful way.
Living with fate after the departure of Faith
Sometime, towards the end of 2018, Faith, who had been married to
Christopher for about four years but without a child to bless their
union, suddenly took in and gave birth to a baby boy in May 2019. Good
news! But the sad news is that she died shortly afterward, leaving the
poor baby without a mother. She was said to have died from complications
which resulted from her delivery of the baby through caesarian section.
She was buried within one week of the incident. Faced with such a
difficult situation, Kwange asked his second wife to move to Lafia to
assist with taking care of the newborn baby Faith left behind.
One thing led to the other, and after spending seven months in Lafia
with her son-in-law who works with one of the federal government
agencies, Priscilla was found pregnant. Investigation shows that within
that period, she had regular sex with her son-in-law. Pregnancy later
became the result of her sexual escapades.
Kwange’s regrettable story
Right now, her husband, Mr. Sylvanus Kwange, an ex-service man, is livid
with anger over the sordid development. Speaking exclusively with our
correspondent in Lafia on his arrival from Jalingo, the man who is
boiling like a kettle of hot water, threatened to deal with both his
wife and his son-in-law for daring to commit such sacrilege. He vowed
that his wife would never step her foot into his house again, come what
may. He affirmed that his wife had been in Lafia for about seven months.
“That is to say, it is about seven months that I have not seen her. We
only talk on the phone,” he said. “I know the importance of her coming
to stay in Lafia for some period of time, to take care of the new born
baby whose mother is late. I thought it was my own responsibility to
help my son-in-law and the new baby of my late daughter. So, I allowed
my own wife to come and help.” Then he turned to you and asked
rhetorically: “Is that an offence?”
You asked how he learnt about the abominable news. His words: “Two weeks
ago, a friend ran into my wife in Lafia and called to tell me that he
saw her with bulging stomach. I was speechless with shock and asked, how
come? I didn’t want to believe it or confront her on the phone. She has
been here since June last year. I decided to visit them to also see how
the little boy is doing. I was coming with so much joy, not knowing
that I was coming to meet disaster waiting for me. When I got to the
house of my son-in-law, I met the shock of my life as I saw my own wife
with a protruding stomach. I stood transfixed to the spot as I looked at
her, trying to recall if there was any time she told me she was
pregnant but I could not remember.
“I quickly asked my wife what happened and she broke down and confessed
that Mr. Chori seduced her and they had sex and it became frequent and
the result was the pregnancy. She started begging me for forgiveness.
She said that she actually allowed him to have his way as a way of
checking her fertility status and it turned out to be this way and that
she refused to abort it because she has spent 10 solid years with me
without a child. She said it is almost getting late as she is no longer
getting younger. She pleaded with me not to cause her any embarrassment
or disgrace by exposing her to ridicule and shame. She actually begged
me to handle the matter in a mature way, but I’m yet to get out of the
shock seeing my own wife impregnated by my own son-in-law. My anger
knows no bounds. If it were during my days as a military man, I would
have used my gun to kill the two of them. But if I do that now, I will
be taking the law into my hands. What I will do now is to go back to
Taraba. I have asked my wife not to come back to my house. As for
Christopher Chori, I leave him to his conscience.”
Chori’s side of the story and battle with conscience
That, Christopher Chori insists, is even a worse punishment than being
killed as he doesn’t know how to deal with the continuous tugging of his
conscience. For him, it would have been better if Kwange had used the
military-issued rifle he was talking about to kill him outright. It
would have shortened the emotional trauma he is going through right now.
His story: “After the death and burial of my wife, my mother-in-law came
to stay with me here in Lafia, to help look after the baby because my
mother is no longer alive; she died many years ago. I work with one of
the federal government agencies in Lafia. My younger sister who is
equally staying with me is in SS2 and could not combine her studies with
taking care of the baby. So my father-in-law asked his wife to come
because his first wife who happens to be my real mother-in-law is late.
“I live in two-bedroom apartment. So when she came to take care of the
baby with the assistance of my younger sister, I left one of the rooms
for them to use while I stay in the other room but I come home regularly
to check on them and to ensure that she does not lack anything
especially when my younger sister is out in school.
“In the first one month of her stay with me, nothing happened but during
the second month, which was July 2019, something happened that left me
with so much guilty feelings. My sister went to school. I did not go to
work that day, leaving me and my mother-in-law alone in the house. It
rained the previous night all through and the weather was very cold. I
was checking on them in their room to see how my newborn baby was doing.
But when I opened the door, I was shocked to see my mother-in-law
almost naked as she wore only lingerie with no underwear. I could
clearly see the outline of her firm breasts and her private part. I
tried to turn back but she said I should come in. When I hesitated, she
walked up to me and grabbed me, asking me why I was behaving like a
small boy. She asked whether she was not looking attractive to me. I
told her I could not do what she had in mind with her as I saw her as my
own mother as well as mother-in-law.
“But she disabused my mind and insisted that I must sleep with her. As a
human being, I fell for the temptation and slept with her that day, and
somehow it continued at any given opportunity. It became a daily
routine as I was not going to work regularly. As soon as my sister
leaves for school and the boy is able to sleep, we would stay indoors
and have sex all day and it later resulted in pregnancy but she refused
to abort it. She said she has been longing for a child of her own. I
cannot but blame myself for falling into such a temptation but then the
deed has been done. I feel very bad because there is no way my
father-in-law would thump his chest and claim to be the owner of the
pregnancy because she has spent some months in my house and she missed
her period while staying here, not in her husband’s house.”
Inasmuch as he feels bad about his action, he feels worse about his
father-in-law’s decision to go public with what he feels was supposed to
be a family affair and should have been settled internally. “I’m
confused at the moment,” he said. “I don’t know what to do but the days
ahead will surely bring a solution to this embarrassing situation.”
Priscilla’s lamentations
Of the three people involved in the tragedy, Priscilla seems to be the
worst hit. She explained: “I’m not proud of myself because apart from
being a housewife, the victim is my son-in-law. My reason for teasing
him was to test my fertility status since there was a golden opportunity
and sticking to my husband in the past ten years has not yielded any
result. I wanted to be sure of where the problem lies. Unfortunately, I
took in. It was a wrong decision but I didn’t want to take the risk of
aborting the baby as it may not come my way again. Although, I didn’t
want it made public, my husband has succeeded in exposing it. I admit I
am guilty of allowing my son-in-law to impregnate me but I was also
considering my condition, even though I never expected pregnancy to
come. But since it has come, I will want to keep it even if he decides
to push me out of his house, I can’t afford to die childless.”
Culled from Sun News