How Odogwu Asaba’s Spouse Performs “The Good Wife Trope,” Amidst Husband Rape Charge

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For some women, being labelled as a “good wife” appears to come with one non-negotiable rule: whatever happens, never turn your back on your husband. Not when the marriage is under pressure, not when the man is being publicly condemned, and apparently not even when he is facing an allegation as serious as rape. That is the position taken by the wife of Delta-based content creator Ifeanyi Ogbonna, popularly known as Odogwu Asaba, who has publicly defended her husband weeks after his arrest over the rape of 20-year-old Favour Agbro, who later died after ingesting poison.

In a video shared on social media, Ogbonna’s wife said she had been following the case quietly and had chosen to speak only after learning more about what happened. Her conclusion was definite; she believes her husband.

“Odogwu Asaba is my husband, and I stand with him 100 per cent. I’m not going to turn my back on him”

She went further, insisting that Ogbonna did not rape Favour and that what happened between them was an affair.

“Odogwu Asaba did not kill anybody. Odogwu Asaba did not rape Favour. Odogwu Asaba only had an affair with the said girl”

The statement is conflicting because it does not deny that Ogbonna sexually assaulted the deceased. Instead, it gives it a different name. The police, however, are investigating an allegation of rape.

Ogbonna was arrested by the Delta State Police Command in July 2026 after a petition concerning Favour’s death. Police said Favour travelled from Warri to Asaba on June 1 after Ogbonna offered to train her in content creation and help her monetise her social media platforms. According to the police account, Ogbonna physically assaulted her after she arrived in Asaba. Favour subsequently returned home distressed and told her family what had happened. 

She later recorded a video recounting her experience before ingesting poison. She died despite efforts to save her life. The police said Ogbonna was arrested following the petition and would be charged to court after investigations. Ogbonna has not been convicted of rape, and the allegation remains subject to investigation and determination by the courts.

However, while the legal process will determine what happened between Ogbonna and Favour, his wife’s defence has pointed to another conversation about the lengths some women are willing to go to protect the men they have chosen. She repeatedly invoked her marriage as part of her defence.

“I’ve been with this man for eight years, with four children.”

She also said she knew her husband and had never known him to rape anyone. 

“Even when this man did not have fame, he didn’t rape anyone. Is it now that he has fame and women?”

That is where the familiar perfect wife image begins to look less like loyalty and more like a system: the husband must be protected, marriage must survive no matter what happens and whatever family name must remain intact. Ogbonna’s wife is not a child who does not understand the seriousness of the allegation against her husband; she is a grown woman who has heard the allegations, followed the controversy and chosen to publicly defend him. She is entitled to make that choice, but she is also responsible for the things she says while making it, and that includes reducing a rape allegation to an affair and suggesting that because women are willing to sleep with her husband, there would have been no reason for him to rape anyone.

“Some women can actually give themselves free of charge, just to have the feeling of, ‘Eh, I have slept with this man, or I’ve been seen or been around Odogwu Asaba.”

A man’s fame does not make every woman who encounters him available to him. That question cannot be settled by the man’s popularity, his wife’s knowledge of him or the number of women who may find him desirable. The wife’s argument also feeds into a familiar way of talking about women around powerful or popular men: if women supposedly want access to him, then any woman who later says he sexually assaulted her must have misunderstood, changed her mind, wanted something else or simply been part of a consensual affair.

Favour is dead, and her death came after she told people close to her what had happened to her. The wife acknowledged that she was dead, but also backtracked and immediately returned to defending her husband. She also insisted that there was more to the story than what had been presented online and said she had more information she could reveal.

“I’m thinking and seeing it beyond what you people are seeing it,” she said.

And this is why the perfect wife ideal deserves to be questioned, there is a version of womanhood that praises women for enduring almost anything for a man, the woman who stays is loyal, the woman who protects her husband’s reputation is a good wife, the woman who refuses to abandon him when everyone else has turned against him is celebrated too, at a point it’s no longer simply about protecting a marriage but about protecting the social order that keeps men at the centre of women’s lives.

That choice should be examined honestly, rather than wrapped in language about the strength of marriage or the loyalty of a wife. A woman does not become a better wife because she can defend a man against everything; the insistence on standing by a man at all costs is exactly what allows the cost to be paid by another woman.