/ 1 January 2002

Suspicious Nigerian amputates his wife’s leg

A 46-year-old man, Hussaini Maidoya, has been arrested by police in Bauchi, northern Nigeria, for amputating his wife’s right leg after suspecting her of infidelity, according to news reports.

Maidoya told the police on Tuesday after his arrest that he amputated his wife’s leg after she had stripped naked before a male doctor simply because she was taking an injection.

”The amputation was ‘an act of God”’, he declared.

But he begged his wife to forgive him, maintaining that he still loved her.

”I would be grateful if Amina (his wife) could forgive me because I still love her,” Maidoya said repeatedly. He also stressed that he had not carried out the amputation out of jealousy.

”I never caught her with any man, but I was angry that she failed to explain why she stripped naked in the course of receiving an injection,” Maidoya said.

”When we went home after seeing the doctor, I queried her for over-exposing her body to a male doctor. She grew annoyed and shouted at me and I slapped her,” he said.

”The following day, a male neighbour called me and asked me to stop beating my wife, but again when I confronted her to tell me how our neighbour knew about the quarrel, she denied telling anybody about the misunderstanding.

”This is what annoyed me and I picked up a machete and cut (off) her leg. But I am sorry about it. It was an act of God.” Police said Maidoya would soon be arraigned in court.

Amina, a mother of eight children, is still breastfeeding a two-week old baby. – Sapa-DPA