ISE-EKITI — A December 2014 homecoming that should have been a celebration ended in violence, loss, and exile for Mr.Tolulope Augustus Olokesusi, his wife, Ofonimo Ukpe Ben and their younger daughter.
I lived for years in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with my wife and younger daughter, before returning to Ise Ekiti with his wife and newborn daughter to introduce the child to his family after their marriage ceremony. He stated that moments after arriving at the family house, tension erupted when senior family members, led by the family head, demanded that his daughter undergo female circumcision.
I, refused outright. “I could never allow something like that to happen to my child,” he stated. His refusal sparked physical violence inside the home. His wife was stabbed in the thigh, while he was brutally injured trying to rescue her. He alleged the beating also caused his wife to lose a three-month pregnancy.
The couple reported the attack to the police, but he claimed the matter was dismissed as a “family dispute” and they were advised to settle it within the family. Fearing for their daughter’s safety, the family said they have been unable to return to Nigeria since the incident.
The trauma, he said, deepened in 2018 when his mother died from psychological distress she suffered after her son’s aborted homecoming.
Today, he says he bears the weight of multiple losses: his unborn child, his mother, and the freedom to bring his family home without fear.
“I just want to live in peace. I want my daughter to grow up safe. I want my family to come home without being molested,” he said.
He is now speaking out to call on government and society to take decisive action against female genital mutilation.
“This is not culture,” he stated. “This is shameful.”
My demand simple: justice, protection, and the right to raise his child without fear. Until that is guaranteed, he said, home remains unsafe for his family.
