When a baby is delivered its always a time of joy and jubilation in every family but not with Mr. Ezekiel Anorue who smashed his new daughter on the ground because his wife gave birth to another give after 4 other baby girls.
The 49 year old man from Imo state out of anger smashed the new born baby and she died immediately.
The wife of Mr. Anorue raised alarm when she noticed that the baby stopped breathing.
The man have been arrested and is to be charged for fisrt degree murder.
The suspected killer blamed his wife for giving him false hope.
Yes, the wife at different times told him that scan results showed that the baby she was carrying was a boy so when Mr. Anorue saw a baby girl he couldn’t control his temper and smashed the baby to death.
The wife in her own statement said she had to lie to her husband because of the pressure was too much on her to have a baby boy after giving birth to 4 girls already.
Yes, in Igboland and many other African societies a girl child is not seen as that important because of inheritance and carrying on the family name.
But this situation also has both traditional and legal solutions.
For example in the some Igbo cultures if a man cant get a son but has only daughters, the first daughter (Ada) will get pregnant from any where and give birth to a baby(hoping that it will be a boy).
Then that baby becomes the son of the father. Also because in Igbo land if you didnt pay the bride price on the head of the mother, before a baby you fathered is born you have automatically lost the paternity rights. And the baby becomes a child of the father of the girl. (This is some kind of surrogacy)
Mr. Anorue should have used this traditional option.
Why most Igbo men insist on boy child is because of the inheritance laws of Igboland.
A woman cant inherit landed property and cant even sale a family land without a man from the family coming to sign for the family.
Therefore many men believe if they die without a son that their landed properties is automatically transferred to their brothers who are at liberty to give anything or nothing to the daughters of the deceased.
This one has a standard legal solution already on ground.
On Monday, April 14, 2016 a Supreme Court judgment led by Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour, voided the Igbo customary law, which denies daughters inheriting their fathers.
The judgment read “No matter the circumstances of the birth of a female child, such a child is entitled to an inheritance from her late father’s estate. Consequently, the Igbo customary law, which disentitles a female child from partaking in the sharing of her deceased father’s estate, is a breach of Section 42(1) and (2) of the Constitution”
Therefore with this ruling a girl is automatically equivalent to a boy, no need to kill your self over the issue of the gender of a baby.