Ex-Super Eagles star, Godwin Okpara has been arraigned before an Ikeja Magistrate’s Court, Lagos for battering his wife, Linda Oladoyinbo at their house on Oduduwa Street, GRA, Ikeja.
Ex-Super Eagles player, Godwin Okpara
The wife wrote a petition to the police at the Zone 2 Police Command, Onikan saying that 45-year-old Okpara brought some thugs into the house and ordered them to beat her up. She added that she was attacked because she questioned the partitioning and sale of the family’s landed property in Ikeja.
However, Okpara, in his reaction, told the police that the fight happened after he returned home and discovered that his wife had stabbed one of his visitors.
The case was referred to the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions, which issued advice on it. The advice, dated September 2017 and signed by the Director, Directorate of Public Prosecutions, Y.G. Oshoala, said: “Facts in the duplicate case file revealed that Mrs. Linda Oladoyinbo travelled to France for some time and upon her arrival, she was denied access to her matrimonial house by her husband – Godwin Okpara; and when she finally gained access after many weeks, she was only allowed into the guesthouse, while her husband’s brother and wife moved into the main house.”
Heavily injured Linda Oladoyinbo
“Further facts revealed that Mrs. Linda Oladoyinbo questioned Godwin Okpara about the joint property he sold without her knowledge and he beat her mercilessly with the participation of his brother and his wife. He equally brought thugs into the house, who beat her up with sticks upon which she suffered internal bleeding.
“This is corroborated by a picture showing severe face injuries suffered by the wife and the medical report from the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital indicating that she suffered serious injuries and was found bleeding from the nose and mouth as a result of the assault from the husband. The attached video record from the police clearly shows the suspect assaulting the complainant despite pleas from other observers.”
The advice, which dismissed charges of forgery, stealing, malicious damage and threat to life due to lack of evidence, said the suspect should be arraigned on one count of assault occasioning harm.
The charge read, “That you, Godwin Okpara, sometime in August 2016, on Oduduwa Street, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos, in the Lagos Magisterial District, unlawfully assaulted and injured one Linda Oladoyinbo, by flogging her with a stick and other weapons, thereby committing an offence punishable under Section 173, Ch C.17, Vol.3 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.”
Be that as it may, family sources told us that the couple, who were based in France where Okpara played for French club, PSG, had been married for over 25 years, and the union blessed with four children.
Battered wife of Godwin Okpara, Linda Oladoyinbo
However, crisis started in the marriage in 2005 when the wife reported to the French authorities that Okpara was sleeping with their 13-year-old housemaid, Tina. He was arrested and convicted for the crime. While he served a 10-year prison term and was released in 2012, his wife got 15 years for child abuse.
Although Okpara was released early on the grounds of good conduct in prison, he forfeited all his property and money to the French government, who also took custody of the family’s three surviving children.