After severe persecution in the hands of their kinsmen to submit their daughter for circumcision, as required by their traditional,  Olalowo Hammed Olalekan and his wife, Modinat, have fled Nigeria.

Hammed, who was said to have been attacked by his kinsmen for not subjecting his daughter for the exercise, said he didn’t expect to survive the attack due to thorough beating he got when he tried to escape, saying he was abused by his family and the community alike and was left to die, NewTelegraph reported on Sunday.

He said, “I thought I had died. I was bleeding all over my body with swollen face and cuts on my body. What I experienced from them is not what I wish anybody. If it were my wife or children, they may not have survived it. I was on my way home, when some men began taunting me for not allowing my daughter to be circumcised, rather aided their disappearance.”