Master Richard 'justifies' wife-beating

Mikki Osei-Berko (alias Master Richard of Taxi Driver fame) has tried to justify the brutish battering administered to the wife by claiming that he saw the wife, who lives with the couple's children at Asylum Down, preparing to go out to a party with another man, leaving the children in the care of his mother-in-law. Ludicrously, the popular TV star appears to say that it is alright for a husband to beat his wife up and mercilessly on allegations of adultery.

Ironically, friend's of the wife have rebutted his claim, accusing him instead of having an extra-marital affair with a Ghana Airways employee. They also query how then can he justify previous violence against the wife, especially during her pregnancy?

Following the publication in The Statesman on Wednesday, he could be heard on two Accra airwaves, arrogantly implying the wife was having an extra-marital affair while somewhat oddly claiming to have settled the matter amicably. The wife's father who visited The Statesman's office on Wednesday is adamant that only after his dead body would the daughter return to a man with a temper more associated with boxer Mike Tyson's treatment to ex-wife, Robin Givens.

Whether Osei-Berko's conciliatory gestures amount to a mere gimmick to save face or a genuine sign of remorse may be speculative, but what is clear is that the story has brought to the fore the worrying patriarchal culture that sees women becoming silent prisoners of torture in their matrimonial enclaves.