A woman goes to babysit for her son-in-law. But she ends up carrying, in the deal, two babies for the same man: one in her arms and the other in her stomach. It’s a story with various angles and tangles to it, a tragedy of immense proportion, with many loops and layers. And, untangling it, understanding it, is not going to prove an easy task for many a mind.
Mr. Christopher Chori, son-in-law to Mr. Silvanus Kwange is in a very serious dilemma right now after impregnating his father-in-law’s second wife, Priscilla Kwange. If he can turn back the hands of time to avert the emotional trauma he is going through, he would have gladly done so. But as things stand, it is already too late. The horse has already bolted, locking the gate after that is meaningless.
Mr. Kwange, a Tiv from Taraba State, has been married to his second wife for about 10 years. Their marriage came after he lost his first wife, Rose Kwange, to a fatal motor accident. But before she met her untimely death, the late Rose had a daughter and the only child with Mr. Kwange. It was after her death that her widower husband got married to Priscilla. But unfortunately, in the past 10 years, the couple never had a child. And this development had always caused quarrels in their marriage as the man’s family members strongly believe that the fault is Priscilla’s. They cited Rose’s daughter as proof of Kwange’s virility.
Kwange who was in a quandary over his wife’s inability to conceive, equally believed that she is the problem and made several attempts to send her packing. But Chori, their son-in-law, a Mada from Kokona Local Government Area of Nasarawa State who got married to Faith, the man’s only daughter, prevailed on him not to do so. He was said to always intervene, telling his father-in-law that God is the only One who gives children. He is said to have also advised him to seek medical attention or try some fertility drugs if he was not too keen on seeing medical or fertility experts. But he had always refused, noting that there was no problem with his body and citing Faith as a proof of the point he was trying to make.
Chori was said to always been on the phone with his father-in-law and mother-in-law trying to appeal to them to see reasons and that their inability to have a child should not constitute a clog in the wheel of their marital bliss. All the same that did not deter Kwange from looking for other ways out of the problem. Unconfirmed sources told newsmen that he is into all sorts of an extramarital relationship with other women in his bid to get a child but so far none had produced the expected result.
On Priscilla’s part, as Africans would say, during those years, she traversed seven lands and seven seas in her search of a child she would call her own. In her desperation to keep her home, she did a lot but without any of her numerous medical efforts yielding tangible results. Sources say there is no known fertility hospital she has not visited in Taraba, Makurdi, Abuja, and Jos, with the help of their son-in-law, Chori. But it was all to no avail. It was in the course of these fruitless searches for a solution that the devil chose to strike in a most embarrassing and shameful way.
Sometimes, towards the end of 2018, Faith, who had been married to Christopher for about four years but without a child to bless their union, suddenly took in and gave birth to a baby boy in May 2019. Good news! But the sad news is that she died shortly afterward, leaving the poor baby without a mother. She was said to have died from complications that resulted from her delivery of the baby through caesarian section. She was buried within one week of the incident. Faced with such a difficult situation, Kwange asked his second wife to move to Lafia to assist with taking care of the newborn baby Faith left behind.
One thing led to the other, and after spending seven months in Lafia with her son-in-law who works with one of the federal government agencies, Priscilla was found pregnant. Investigation shows that within that period, she had regular sex with her son-in-law. Pregnancy later became the result of her sexual escapades.
Right now, her husband, Mr. Sylvanus Kwange, an ex-serviceman, is livid with anger over the sordid development. Speaking exclusively with newsmen in Lafia on his arrival from Jalingo, the man who is boiling like a kettle of hot water, threatened to deal with both his wife and his son-in-law for daring to commit such sacrilege. He vowed that his wife would never step her foot into his house again, come what may. He affirmed that his wife had been in Lafia for about seven months.
“That is to say, it is about seven months that I have not seen her. We only talk on the phone,” he said. “I know the importance of her coming to stay in Lafia for some period of time, to take care of the newborn baby whose mother is late. I thought it was my own responsibility to help my son-in-law and the new baby of my late daughter. So, I allowed my own wife to come and help.” Then he turned to you and asked rhetorically: “Is that an offense?”
You asked how he learned about the abominable news. His words: “Two weeks ago, a friend ran into my wife in Lafia and called to tell me that he saw her with a bulging stomach. I was speechless with shock and asked, how come? I didn’t want to believe it or confront her on the phone. She has been here since June last year. I decided to visit them to also see how the little boy is doing. I was coming with so much joy, not knowing that I was coming to meet disaster waiting for me. When I got to the house of my son-in-law, I met the shock of my life as I saw my own wife with a protruding stomach. I stood transfixed to the spot as I looked at her, trying to recall if there was any time she told me she was pregnant but I could not remember.
“I quickly asked my wife what happened and she broke down and confessed that Mr. Chori seduced her and they had sex and it became frequent and the result was the pregnancy. She started begging me for forgiveness. She said that she actually allowed him to have his way as a way of checking her fertility status and it turned out to be this way and that she refused to abort it because she has spent 10 solid years with me without a child. She said it is almost getting late as she is no longer getting younger.
She pleaded with me not to cause her any embarrassment or disgrace by exposing her to ridicule and shame. She actually begged me to handle the matter in a mature way, but I’m yet to get out of the shock seeing my own wife impregnated by my own son-in-law. My anger knows no bounds. If it were during my days as a military man, I would have used my gun to kill the two of them. But if I do that now, I will be taking the law into my hands. What I will do now is to go back to Taraba. I have asked my wife not to come back to my house. As for Christopher Chori, I leave him to his conscience.”
That, Christopher Chori insists, is even a worse punishment than being killed as he doesn’t know how to deal with the continuous tugging of his conscience. For him, it would have been better if Kwange had used the military-issued rifle he was talking about to kill him outright. It would have shortened the emotional trauma he is going through right now.
His story: “After the death and burial of my wife, my mother-in-law came to stay with me here in Lafia, to help look after the baby because my mother is no longer alive; she died many years ago. I work with one of the federal government agencies in Lafia. My younger sister who is equally staying with me is in SS2 and could not combine her studies with taking care of the baby. So my father-in-law asked his wife to come because his first wife who happens to be my real mother-in-law is late.
“I live in two-bedroom apartment. So when she came to take care of the baby with the assistance of my younger sister, I left one of the rooms for them to use while I stay in the other room but I come home regularly to check on them and to ensure that she does not lack anything especially when my younger sister is out in school.
“In the first one month of her stay with me, nothing happened but during the second month, which was July 2019, something happened that left me with so much guilty feelings. My sister went to school. I did not go to work that day, leaving me and my mother-in-law alone in the house. It rained the previous night all through and the weather was very cold. I was checking on them in their room to see how my newborn baby was doing. But when I opened the door, I was shocked to see my mother-in-law almost naked as she wore only lingerie with no underwear.
I could clearly see the outline of her firm breasts and her private part. I tried to turn back but she said I should come in. When I hesitated, she walked up to me and grabbed me, asking me why I was behaving like a small boy. She asked whether she was not looking attractive to me. I told her I could not do what she had in mind with her as I saw her as my own mother as well as the mother-in-law.
“But she disabused my mind and insisted that I must sleep with her. As a human being, I fell for the temptation and slept with her that day, and somehow it continued at any given opportunity. It became a daily routine as I was not going to work regularly.
As soon as my sister leaves for school and the boy is able to sleep, we would stay indoors and have sex all day and it later resulted in pregnancy but she refused to abort it. She said she has been longing for a child of her own. I cannot but blame myself for falling into such a temptation but then the deed has been done. I feel very bad because there is no way my father-in-law would thump his chest and claim to be the owner of the pregnancy because she has spent some months in my house and she missed her period while staying here, not in her husband’s house.”
Inasmuch as he feels bad about his action, he feels worse about his father-in-law’s decision to go public with what he feels was supposed to be a family affair and should have been settled internally. “I’m confused at the moment,” he said. “I don’t know what to do but the days ahead will surely bring a solution to this embarrassing situation.”
Of the three people involved in the tragedy, Priscilla seems to be the worst hit. She explained: “I’m not proud of myself because apart from being a housewife, the victim is my son-in-law. My reason for teasing him was to test my fertility status since there was a golden opportunity and sticking to my husband in the past ten years has not yielded any result. I wanted to be sure of where the problem lies. Unfortunately, I took in.
It was a wrong decision but I didn’t want to take the risk of aborting the baby as it may not come my way again. Although I didn’t want it made public, my husband has succeeded in exposing it. I admit I am guilty of allowing my son-in-law to impregnate me but I was also considering my condition, even though I never expected pregnancy to come. But since it has come, I will want to keep it even if he decides to push me out of his house, I can’t afford to die childless.”
