UMUNEDE, IKA NORTHEAST –The laughter of his little daughter, Dyvia, is what Charles Iloba fights to protect. It’s a sound he once knew with his first daughter, Daniella, before it was silenced forever. Now, that fight has forced him to become a fugitive in his own homeland.
Driven by the haunting memory of one daughter’s death, Mr. Charles Ugochukwu Iloba has fled the Umunede community with his wife, Isioma Success, his son David and their young daughter, Dyvia, after defiantly refusing to subject her to a mandated ritual circumcision.
The family’s stand is rooted in an unimaginable loss. In 2019, their eldest daughter, one-year-old Daniella, underwent the community-sanctioned procedure. Instead of a celebration, it led to a parent’s worst nightmare: severe complications, a frantic rush to a nearby clinic, and a devastating loss that left the family hollow.
“He was a broken man,” shared a close relative who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal. “After Daniella died, Charles held her little shoes and swore to God he would never let another female child of his suffer like that. Dyvia is his redemption.”
That vow turned him into a target. As little Dyvia turned one in December last year, it was demanded that she be presented for the customary female ritual circumcision. His description of the practice as “outdated and evil” was seen as a profound betrayal by community elders. What began as muttered disapproval escalated into full-scale ostracism. The family was excluded from community meetings, and their once-busy home became a place neighbors avoided.
The hostility soon turned violent. The couple reported being jeered at in the market, and their homestead was pelted with stones on several nights, leaving them living in a state of constant fear.
The final, terrifying straw came in January this year. As Mr. Iloba returned home to his residence at 79, Osomihia Street, Ileje Quarters, a mob armed with sticks and machetes accosted him, shouting accusations of bringing a curse upon the community. Eyewitnesses report he was beaten before managing to break away and flee into a nearby bush, saving his life by mere seconds.
Knowing the next attack could be fatal, the family made the heart-wrenching decision to abandon everything—their home, and their community—that very night. They left with little more than the clothes on their backs and a few cherished photographs, including one of a smiling Daniella.
“They just vanished,” a neighbor lamented. “We don’t know if they are safe or even alive. It’s a tragedy for everyone.”
While community leaders remain silent, the incident has ignited a fierce, quiet debate within Umunede, pitting the uncompromising weight of tradition against the universal cry of a parent’s love. It poses a painful question: how far would you go to protect your child? For Charles Iloba, the answer was to leave behind the only world he ever knew.
