How assault, jealousy ruined my marriage — Evi Edna Ogholi

By The Citizen

In the wake of the shocking revelation that Evi Edna Ogholi dumped a relationship that may have influenced her career when her estranged husband Emma Ogosi was facing financial crisis and a depleting fortune, Nigeria's first iconic female reggae artiste, Evi Egna Ogholi recently threw a bombshell when she alleged that she was a victim of 'habitual wife battering' by her ex-husband, Emma Ogosi out of irrational jealousy. Evi accused Emma of turning him into a punching bag and serially assaulting her in the presence of their two children.

Contrary to Emma's report that Evi left him when she felt the party was over and can no longer cope with the reality of cutting her cloth according to her size, Evi response indicated she ran for her life to avoid a looming fatality that was destined to be the outcome of constant wife battering.

Evi alleged Emma was usually filled with erratic rage anytime he saw her with a colleague or an admirer which is usually the case in show business, Emma constantly battered her, accusing her of infidelity. She cited several instances where she was assaulted by Emma because journalists were speaking to her but Friday Flavour is yet to confirm these claims. According to a statement she released which opened the can of worms, Friday Flavour deduced she is in Paris and may not return to her husband. Part of the statement read:

'One day, Emma Ogosi and I went to Ras Kimono's party, at Ras Kimono's residence in Lagos. At the party, a journalist (names withheld), walked up to me, to greet me and to interview me. As he was asking me questions, Emma Ogosi walked up to me … Emma Ogosi told me, 'Evi, let's go home, just like that (without even saying goodbye to Ras Kimono)'. On our way back home, Emma Ogosi was grimacing. When we got to the house, Emma Ogosi asked me 'Evi, what were you discussing with the journalist?' Emma Ogosi started punching me, as usual. He told me that, 'Evi, the journalist was chasing you'. To complicate matters, Evi alleged Emma flushed down his wedding ring down the toilet in the presence the entire family and grossly abused Evi and her family.

Another incident took place after she performed a duet with another artiste Priye her former chorus singer at a concert. Evi alleged Emma was angry because of the duet performance and accused Priye of maintaining a suspicious eye contact with Emma during the performance. Emma vetted out her anger on Evi, 'chopped off a flesh - from the lower part of my face (jaw, to be precise) with his teeth'. Emma went on with the beating her until she lost consciousness, it would have been a fatal incident for the sake of Fyne who quickly rushed her to a hospital in her car.

The battery continued according to Evi in Accra - Ghana, were Emma wanted her to stop greeting the show promoter who was the organiser of Evi and her band's tour of some West African countries out of sheer jealousy and also when she was discussing with a male family friend on how to arrange cake for a surprise birthday for Emma even amidst the family crisis. Emma concluded she's having affair with these men and all the stories ended up in severe battering.

One human-rights activist who begged for anonymity because of the domestic nature of the story said leaving Emma was the right thing to do. According to the Human/Woman Rights activist, 'women should not be in such violent relationships. Marriage is for better for worse but not when there is a threat to one's life. So many women have died due to the fact they couldn't leave their marriage because of the nature of our traditional society that doesn't allow women quit from violent relationships even when their lives are threatened'.

The two musicians Edna Ogholi and Emma Egosi were household names in Nigeria in the 80s through 90s. Edna got married to her producer boyfriend then, Emma Ogosi and Nigerians are wondering what could have caused the crisis for the two love birds of the 90s.

In the wake of this quarrel, both had claimed being the story behind the other's success in the music industry. - National Mirror.