A bank worker, Olaoluwa Adejo, has been arrested by the
Lagos State Police Command for the death of his 28-year-old wife, Maureen, at
their home on Peluola Street, Oworonshoki, in the Bariga area of the
state.
The 32-year-old Lagos indigene was alleged to have tortured
his wife of five years with a belt, as well as cutting her with a machete.
Their five-year-old son, Richard, in whose presence the
incident reportedly happened, told PUNCH that
his father also forced a local insecticide, otapiapia, down the
throat of his mother.
“I am Richard
Adejo. I am five years old. My daddy beat my mummy with a belt; machete her
here (shows arms), machete her
here (shows legs). He used
the belt on her here (points at face); forced my mummy to drink otapiapia (insecticide). My daddy took my mummy away.
“My daddy said my
mummy should get out of the house. My mummy said no. In the night, my daddy
woke my mummy up and said, ‘Mosquito is too much, let me go and buy otapiapia’.
My daddy forced my mummy to drink it. She shook her head. She vomited.
“My daddy slapped
my mummy. My mummy did not do anything to him. My daddy gave her one blow. My
daddy kicked her. My daddy told her to get out of the house and carry her load.
Small blood came out. My daddy slapped her, kicked her, machete her, blow her,
and put otapiapia in her mouth and in the food,” Richard said.
The victim’s mother, Mrs. Kate Jonathan, said that
Richard had given more graphic details of the incident to family members,
police authorities and officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Justice.
She explained that her daughter had packed out of her
matrimonial house five days to the incident and was living with her, when she
decided to return for a party at the children’s school. She said she never
returned alive.
She said, “I was called on the telephone by an unknown
number around 4pm on Sunday, November 12. The caller said, ‘Your daughter’s
husband has killed her at Oworo’. He dropped the call.
“Around 5pm when I got to their house, I discovered
that the house was locked up. There were two boys guarding the house and they
refused to open the door to me, saying the owner of the house instructed them
not to open the door.
“I didn’t see my daughter or her husband. I was begging them
to open the door when I saw Richard jumping up through the window. He saw me
and asked the boys to open the door, but they refused.
“I broke the louvers of the window. The boy climbed a stool
and said from inside, ‘my father has killed my mother and taken her away.’”
She said she reported the case at the Oworonshoki Police
Station, where she was told that the suspect had already reported that his wife
committed suicide by taking local insecticide, Sniper.
Jonathan said after making her statement, she left the
station.
Olaoluwa had already deposited the body of his wife in the
Gbagada General Hospital mortuary and had allegedly gone to obtain court
documents to enable him to bury her.
He was asked to return to the police station for a certain
document, which led to his arrest based on his mother-in-law’s complaint.
The suspect was said to have been transferred to the State
Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Yaba.
However, the couple’s three children were said to have been
taken to a family friend, a policeman, who lived in Agric, in the Ikorodu area.
Due to the insistence of the mother-in-law, the police were
said to have demanded the release of the couple’s first child, Richard, for
interrogation.
In a meeting at the SCIID, Yaba, Richard was alleged to have
given an account of how his mother was allegedly murdered by his father.
The police reportedly ordered the removal of the corpse from
the Gbagada General Hospital mortuary to the morgue of the Lagos State
University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja.
The victim’s mother, Jonathan, who claimed to have visited
the mortuary, said Maureen’s body had machete cuts and other torture marks.
She said, “My daughter, who worked as the manager of my
chemical company had, about a week to the incident, complained that her husband
said we would soon see her obituary.
“I sent my eldest daughter to accompany her to the house to
know what happened. The man begged and said he was only joking. He said
he really loved his wife. I insisted that she pack out of the house.
“She was in my house for three days before she said she
wanted to return home because her children’s school would be having a cultural
party. She left and went to the party with her husband on Saturday. It was that
night that she was brutalised and killed by the husband. From what we saw in
the mortuary, she had blood in her nostrils and deep cuts in her hands and
legs.”
The victim’s mother asked that Maureen’s three children,
namely, Richard, five; Henry, three; and Omowunmi, six months, be released to
her.
The policeman with the couple’s two children, Ajisafe, said
he believed Olaoluwa did not kill his wife.
He explained that the suspect’s aged mother handed over the
children to him for safekeeping.
The 83-year-old mother of the suspect, Florence Adejo, also
denied that her son murdered Maureen.
She said, “He came to knock on the door of my house late
that night. He fell on the ground and started weeping and lamenting that his
wife had destroyed him. A crowd gathered in front of the house where I am the
landlady. They tried to console him. He said his wife took Sniper. He said he
thought it was a joke until their son, Richard, went to bring the container of
the insecticide.
“She was taken to a private hospital where she was initially
rejected before she was taken to the general hospital where she died. I was
told her mother sells the insecticide and she brought it home for mosquitoes.
Why she decided to drink it is what is beyond my understanding. My son said
they didn’t have any disagreement between them and she was not mentally ill.”
The Police Public Relations Officer, SP Chike Oti, said
investigations were ongoing into the incident.
He said, “The man came to report that his wife committed
suicide. The DPO put some questions to him. We thought we should investigate
further to know what really happened because there are some doubts we need to
clear in the matter. The police are not accepting the claim of suicide hook,
line, and sinker. The matter is at the SCIID and investigations are ongoing.”
Punch
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