Mother absconds with children as pressure mounts over FGM, deity worship

A mother of two simply identified as Precious Use Osawaru has reportedly fled with her daughter and her son over her outright refusal to pledge her allegiance to a family deity by oath taking which invariably would also require her to bring her 3-years old daughter for female genital circumcision .

Recall that Precious Use Osawaru had been married since January 12th 2022 to her husband who hails from Uhunmhode local government area of Edo State as women in the community, according to custom and tradition after marriage, are required to perform some spiritual cleansing to appease ancestrors hence she must subscribe to the family deity by taking oath as a major precondition towards the circumcision of her daughter .

However, it was gathered that the mother of two was not adequately informed about the culture of deity worship and subsequent practice of female genital mutilation procedure prior to her marriage with her husband .

A source close to the family disclosed that she rejected both procedures of taking oath for deity worship as well as to allow female genital mutilation to be performed on her only daughter because of the crude and unsterilized nature of the procedure as this could permanently traumatize her daughter leaving her with untreatable disease.

According to the family source who remained anonymous, Precious Use Osawaru was unable to sway the opinions of elders from her husband’s family as it relates to deity worship while claiming in her defense to have been raised as a Christian with the fear of God .

With all pleas falling on deaf ears as the elders in her husband’s family in Uhunmhode community were fully resolved to go ahead with the planned decision to offer Precious Use Osawaru to the family deity ahead of the circumcision of her daugter, hence the mother of two children, according to information made available, absonded from the community owing to the inability of her husband to support and speak in her defense against the unholy and ungodly practice of deity worship in line with the crude circumcision procedure.

Meanwhile, recent findings in the community revealed that the dual procedures of deity worship and female genital mutilation was a common practice amongst several families in Uhunmhode local government area of Edo State as the age-long practice did not come as a surprise to many of the families and homes visited .

For Precious Use Osawaru and her children, the ancestral banishment of the family as reward for her action would forever linger with the family for several years to come.