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Precious,wife of 2Shotz talks about domestic violence she faced in marriage.We all saw the shocking headlines of 2Shots beats wife last week,when news came out about rapper 2Shotz wife Precious Jones (Precious Chidinma Echeofu) escaping from her husband’s alleged domestic abuse in order to protect herself and the future of her children. Screenshots of text messages from Precious explaining her predicament to a friend were shared online. No one knew exactly what to believe. Was this true? Or just rumours? Were the screenshots authentic or fake?
To clarify properly and separate reality from falsehood, LIB reached out to her for an interview and she granted one. Let's just say, you need to sit back and read these explosive details..
LIB: So you married rapper 2shotz in April 2013 after a whirlwind romance?
Precious: Yes!
LIB: How did your husband actually treat you? Did you feel controlled by him?
Precious: Erm, at first he didn't. He was cool. Like he was all lovey dovey and it was good basically. I don't know what happened along the line. I don't want to make excuses for him. I understood that he was going through a lot, He is the man and it is my job to submit, to be submissive, obedient and whatever. This I tried my best to do but I feel like.... I don't know how to put it, but basically, you know the way I'm always travelling back - forth and with my degree and everything. I don't know if that kind of intimidated him or he was just angry at the fact that I had these accomplishments or something like that.
LIB: Are you saying that he was possibly affected by you being more successful?
Precious: Like I said, You can't say I'm more successful. If we are married, we are one. If I'm successful, then he's successful and vice versa. So yeah. I don't know the root of the whole problem. I don't know if it's distance because that's what a lot of people are telling me. But I know a lot of couples that are living abroad, as in their wives are abroad, husbands in Nigeria or wherever and they are making it work. With Technology these days (Skype, Viber, WhatsApp), we have a lot of means to communicate with each other, so that shouldn't really be a problem. I explained to him at the start, that you know we are going to go through a lot of tight times, it's going to be difficult because I want to further my education, masters and all. You know in Nigeria, the competition is so high, you can't go with an ordinary bachelor's degree and get a good Job. You need to package yourself seriously so that companies will take you seriously. I was in Nigeria with just a Bachelor's Degree and I know the kind of Jobs I was being offered. That's not what I want. I'm a very ambitious person. I don't want to say I'm a career woman but l'm very ambitious. I know what I went through to go through four years of college and come out successfully with a little boy. Taking care of my boy/son that I had before I got married. I know what I went through and I'm doing this for him and my kids as well. So basically, I explained to him from the start that we are going to go through it for a couple of years but it's all going to be for the betterment of the family, for the Good and he agreed to this. All of a sudden, it flipped, he changed and the story became that I was trying to take his baby away from him. That I planned to take his child away, I didn't want him to be with his child. I wanted to take her away like I took my son from his father.
As a matter of fact however, my son and his father are best of friends. Even my son's father is my friend still. So I really can't pinpoint the cause of the whole drama but... I know it's probably because of other reasons I can't put my finger on. Everything went sour at a point. I don't know when or where and I tried my best to contain it. I'm not saying I'm perfect. I have my faults and I was able to always admit them but he (2shotz) is stubborn, he'll never apologise or take responsibility. His excuse is that he's older than me, so he has more experience and can never do any wrong. Apparently with the Nigerian Culture, the woman has to be the one apologizing for the rest of her life and (laughs) at the start, I did that and he got spoilt. He felt he could do this, hit me and I'll be the one to beg him.
LIB: If you recall, in 2013, you defended your husband when one of his exes BBA rep Beverly Osu accused him of abuse? How did you feel when all this unfolded?
Precious: (Laughs) So this probably wasn't the response that I'll have given two years ago so I really don't have anything to say to that. I don't have anything to say about that. This is like not my business. It's not an issue I want to go into. I really don't know anything about that.
LIB: Can we now address him as your 'ex-partner' ?
Precious: No.. We are not divorced or nothing. I am still married and all.
LIB: You mentioned your partner’s problem with temper/stress especially as he was losing fame & his career was suffering. How exactly did it affect your relationship with him? Did he really blame you?
Precious: Well according to what the prophet or pastors he was visiting told him, Yes. Apparently, I don't know how true it is but he said that they mentioned it to him.
I was just thinking, like, how can I be the person that wants to bring you down! At the end of the day, you are my husband. If you're famous and your career is booming, so is mine.
LIB: Is He a very religious kind of person? What religion does he practise?
Precious: He's a Christian. We are all Christians. But you know in life, when you go through some things, you need to seek spiritual help. You need to seek more help. So I think in the course of doing that, he probably got blindfolded by whatever prophet he was going to visit.
LIB: Concerning the physical abuse, from the Makeup issue to the 'furniture' wife demand, did you discuss this while dating? Did he ever have any problem with you before you got married? Something you might have ignored?
Precious: Absolutely not. Yes I know a lot of people say violent men show signs and women tend to ignore it but until you're in it, then you cant really say much about it. I'm not a victim of violence, physical abuse. I don't want to be tagged as that. Life just happened to me.
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At the start, when he first met me, I didn't hide anything. I don't know how to lie. He knew I had a son, everything about me was as plain as an open book. When he met me for the first time, I had a full face of make-up. He liked the fact I was wearing what ever I was wearing. He liked the way I dressed, the way I talked, the way I was. So I don't know where the whole makeup thing came in but I appreciated the fact that he had opinions about my looks. I was trying to bring down whatever makeup I was doing - to suit him. It's not like I ignored him. I did everything I could. Even before heading out from home, I'll go to him asking if he liked the way I looked, so that he could give his opinion. It's not like I wasn't making any effort to please him. I actually did everything I could. This was the guy I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I was trying to make him happy. That particular day he flipped out on me in the car, I don't know what happened. He just flipped. When you go through stress, frustration and all that, the next person to pick on and transfer the aggression is probably someone close to you. So I guess I was the target. As a Man, when you go through some stuff, you want to flip out, but there was no one to flip out on. I don't want to say I was readily available for him to transfer his aggression on. It's not like he's a bad person. This was one of the reasons I didn't want the story to initially cone out. It's not because of previous relationships or someone saying he hit them or whatever. I don't want him to suffer the whole bashing. When I first met him, he was a good person. It's just things that are going on in his life. I don't know if it's spiritual, I really can't put my finger on it. Even when he'll hit me or do some strange things, I'll call his name and he wouldn't be there. I'll look into his eyes and he's not there. So I felt its way beyond the physical.
LIB: He spent your money recklessly. Care to give an insight into this?
Precious: OK.. To me, it was our money. I wouldn't say I didn't allow him. I did let him. It wasn't something that he went behind my back to do. I was aware. But let Me just put this out there, - He did give me when he had. It wasn't only me bringing all the time. It wasn't just me. It's probably one of the reasons he was angry, when he wasn't able to bring at all anymore. But moving on from that, he would ask me for different things. He was my Husband. My Money is his money. So that's about it.
LIB: The day he mistakenly hit your daughter.. Was that when you finally gathered the remarkable courage to walk away? Or something else made you walk away?
Precious: I just.. I saw a pattern. I saw what was going to happen in Six months, one year if I stayed. So I just decided then that I was going to leave. I never, ever believed in a million years that I would ever be going through something like this. You know you watch this in the movies.. You see other people saying their stories but never ever expect it. If you told me like the last two months ago that I would go through this, that I would leave him, I probably won't believe you. If you told me in the last three years that I would ever experience a man putting his hands on me, I would tell you that you're a liar. I never ever witnessed something like that in my life. I didn't know what to do, what to say or who to tell. I never told anyone until this came out a couple of days ago.
LIB: He also threatened to shut you up with his powerful contacts? Any idea who these powerful people are?
Precious: I haven't got a clue. I don't know who they are. He was probably just bluffing or whatever, but I didn't want to take a chance.
LIB: Are your family members now aware of what is going on?
Precious: Yeah. They weren't aware first but my siblings now know. I had to tell them before they found out online. They are not really into blogs and whatever, so I had to tell them before their friends send them links. But my Dad, as of now, I think is still unaware. I can't find the courage of telling him something like this, because I feel like I failed them again. I had my Son at such a young age and they stuck with me through that. So me going to tell him that this happened, makes me feel like it would crush him. My Mum knows though.
LIB: Don't you feel your Dad will be more happy knowing you're alive, irrespective of any other thing?
Precious: I Know, I understand that. I will definitely tell him eventually. I just have to sum up the courage to set up a meeting to tell him.
LIB: What future plans do you have for yourself? Do you plan to Reconcile with your husband? What next?
Precious: At this stage, I'm just trying to focus on my Masters. I'm going to focus on my career as a whole. I want to start up my business in Nigeria. Everything was previously put on hold because I didn't want to bruise anyone's ego. I didn't want to make anyone feel intimidated. I just want to focus on my kids. I'm going to stick with God at this stage because only him can direct my path. That's basically what I'm going to do now.