- In pursuant of the case, the plaintiff presented several documents to support the claim that was admitted in court
Prominent Tiv leaders in Benue State have commended the recent decision of the State High Court, led by Chief Judge Justice Maurice Ikpambese, which emphatically refutes the misconception that Tiv men offer their wives to guests for sexual pleasure.
This judgment, addressing a long-standing fallacy, dispels the inaccurate notion that had persisted for years and gained recent attention on a television show hosted by Benita Akpofure.
To challenge this misinformation, the Tiv nation’s pan-sociocultural group, ‘Mzough U Tiv Worldwide,’ represented by its President-General, Iorbee Ihagh, a retired Comptroller of Prison, sought resolution through the state high court in Makurdi, putting an end to the erroneous belief rooted in a past legal case involving Chief Denen Tofi and Ushe Uba during the 80s, where charges of adultery were eventually dismissed on the grounds that it was not expressly prohibited on Tiv land.
In pursuant of the case, the plaintiff presented several documents to support the claim that was admitted in court.
The Chief Judge declared that the “plaintiff had successfully proved his case that a declaration in rem is hereby made that under Tiv native law and custom, a Tiv man doesn’t offer his wife to his visitors for sexual pleasure or any other immoral acts.”
The Mzough U Tiv President General, Ihagh, who spoke with PUNCH, said he is elated about the decision of the court.
According to him, as a plaintiff to the case, the wrong impression had been painted all these years that Tiv people were an immoral group, but with the judgment, Ihagh said that the world would know that it was all fallacy.
He said, “I am the happiest person now because the issue bordered on me and the entire Tiv race, which is the fourth largest ethnic group in the country.
“This was a rumour that had been pending against an ethnic group over the years, there was an incident sometimes ago, where a Tiv man who went to his girlfriend’s house and met another man there killed the man.
“So, if a Tiv man can do such a thing because of his girlfriend, how much will he do because of his wife?, he said.