Court jails man 6 months for forcefully evicting wife

An Iboko High Court sitting in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, has sentenced a 39-year-old man, Chituru Mbam, to six months’ imprisonment without the option of a fine for forcefully evicting his wife from their matrimonial home.

The presiding judge, Justice Ruth Okeh, while delivering the judgment on Monday, found the defendant guilty of the charges, which included destroying the shared property. The court ordered Mbam to pay his wife, Mbam Ozoemena, ₦500,000 in damages and directed him to secure a befitting house for her.

According to the PUNCH, Mbam, at midnight on January 6, 2026, accompanied by two unidentified men, invaded the family residence to execute the eviction. The couple had been married since 2009 and share five children.

After the eviction, the convict orchestrated the victim’s arrest and detention at the Abakaliki Police Headquarters. Mbam, taking advantage of her time in police custody, invaded the property again, removing the roof, doors, windows, and other valuable fittings to render the building completely uninhabitable.

Following the attack, advocates at the Rose Foundation for the Protection of Women and Children intervened to support the victim. A petition filed by Executive Secretary Professor Mike Ajanwachukwu with the Ebonyi State Commissioner of Police prompted law enforcement to arrest and prosecute the suspect.

The counsel to the complainant, Mrs. Ijeoma Mike-Ajanwachukwu, commended the judiciary for upholding justice, stressing that no spouse has the legal right to eject another from a shared home. She stated that the convict violated the law by deploying police officers and thugs to forcefully render his wife homeless by destroying the shared property and moving into a new residence with another woman.