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 Metro 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 told our correspondent during an interview on Monday.

The victim’s mother, Mrs. Kate Jonathan, told PUNCH Metro 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.

PUNCH Metro was told that 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.

Our correspondent learnt that 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.”

A female lawyer, Yewande Oyediran was today found guilty for stabbing her husband to death at their Ibadan home.

Yewande, a former staff of the Department of Public Prosecution in the Oyo State Ministry of Justice, was accused of killing her husband with a knife after a disagreement on February 2, 2016, at their residence in Akobo area of Ibadan.

She has now been sentenced to seven years imprisonment for manslaughter at the Oyo State High Court sitting in Ibadan, on Monday. She was arrested and arraigned in court, but she pleaded not guilty to the murder charge preferred against her.

According to Punch, the court said the convict was charged on a murder count and evidence pointed to Yewande as the killer of her husband; but witnesses presented by the defence counsel failed to establish the intent behind the killing.

The court held that going by the relationship between Yewande and her husband as husband and wife (at the time of the husband’s death), the killing was done without intent.

The couple had no child together. The judge said that with the evidence before the court, the convict and her late husband had frequently engaged in domestic violence.

He also adjudged the evidence of the couple’s landlord and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Akinpelu, as credible. The landlord and his wife had told the court that they saw the convict holding a knife, while the deceased was in a pool of blood.

“Having seen the defendant holding a knife and the defendant had earlier confirmed that she had earlier stabbed her husband with a pair of scissors a day before, I hold that it was the defendant that stabbed the deceased,’’ said the judge.

Abimbola also said that he took into consideration the autopsy report of Prof. Abideen Oluwashola, a consultant from the University College Hospital, Ibadan.

“According to the autopsy report, the deceased died as a result of shock from a deep wound caused by a sharp object,’’ Abimbola said.

The court said the evidence of the convict could not be relied upon, because her statement with the Police was different from her statement before the court.

Earlier, the defence counsel, Mr. Leye Adepoju, had, on the basis that his client was a first time offender, prayed the court to be lenient with the term of the sentence.

He added that imprisonment was not to ruin, but to reform.

“If it is too long, it would ruin the life and as well jeopardise the job of the defendant, being a legal practitioner,” he said.

The prosecution counsel, Mr. Sanya Akinyele, however, said he was leaving the issue of the sentencing to the discretion of the court.

In his judgment, Justice Abimbola convicted Yewande of manslaughter. Her sentence was to start running since the day of her arrest, the judge said.

The day of judgement was initially slated for November 24, 2017, but the judge moved the day to November 27, 2017 because of other engagements at the Nigerian Judicial Commission.

The family of Bilyaminu Bello, the son of ex-PDP chairman, Haliru Bello, who was recently stabbed to death by his wife, Maryam Sanda, have finally broken their silence on the very sad incident that occured on Sunday, November 19th.

A brother of the deceased who spoke to the Nation, said the family is still in shock over the unfortunate incident.

The brother who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they are waiting on the law enforcement agencies to ensure that justice prevails in this matter. The brother of the deceased spoke at a night of tribute held in honor of the deceased in Abuja last Thursday.

“So far, the family is grieving. Maryam’s family have come to pay their condolence. The mother has come but what is more painful is the fact that Maryam does not look remorseful for what she did at all. I just pray one day, she finds it in her heart to honestly say what it is that made her do what she did.

As a family, we are looking at the authority to do what is right, to let justice prevail. This is an example to others. The way this case is treated will determine how we move forward…Bilyamin was not just my older brother but best friend.” he said

A friend of the deceased, Hakeem Ali, who also spoke at the night of tribute, said Bilyaminu was a prisoner in his matrmonial home. He denied allegations that Bilyaminu was a serial cheater.

‘My friend was being held a prisoner in his own home. He couldn’t leave the house in the sense that it was an ongoing thing; the abuse went on for a while. For me there is a difference between love and when somebody is being obsessive. People tend not to understand the difference between love and obsession.

It wasn’t the best marriage and I believe either of them could have just walked away. It’s easier to sit down in that sorrow and think you can change things, or that if I can’t have him, no one will. I don’t consider it love. I can’t speak on his behalf. I can’t speak on his personal issue, he is a good friend and he is gone.

He was that one guy that the minute we step out, we will be like, it is time for you to go home, your wife is about to call, after hanging out for as little as an hour or even 30 minutes. Even in the afternoon because she always calls.

So we formed the habit of going to see him at home. The situation with the law, there are a lot of speculations right now on social media but if Nigeria should excuse people for murder just because they have a child, then if I am a murderer, then I will keep on having babies every week, that is not an excuse, for me.

If somebody has committed a murder, either intentionally or by mistake, she should not be allowed to even see her baby because you don’t even know her state of mind. I don’t understand the system. A conversation has to begin on domestic violence against men as well because it’s becoming recurrent.

If it is a case of murder by mistake then there is a price to pay of which a family can forgive but only God gives life and only God can take it. So, if you take a life, then your life should be taken. It is that simple. If the evidence shows it is a murder, then there is no excuse. It should be a case of an eye for an eye. It is that simple.”

Another friend of the deceased, Jemila Shehu, who was also at the tribute night, suggested that Maryam might have bipolar disorder or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder PTSD

”I have no idea. I was not in her mind. I don’t know what she was thinking. All I know is that they both loved each other. There was love there, only God knows. It beats my imagination and I don’t want to think about it or give any excuse as a Muslim.

He is gone but I don’t know what she was thinking. I don’t know what to think about her. For me, she should be punished. She committed murder. So, she should serve the punishment fully. This happened to someone that was loved by a lot of people. He was kind, quiet and people knew them to be in love.

So, it beats everybody’s imagination. Domestic violence should be treated. People should relax, love is not by force. Obsession is a disease.

There are a lot of people in Nigeria that are sick but people don’t know because you think that if you go to the therapist, they look down on you or think you are crazy but there are a lot of PTSD, bipolar patients and they live among us. Maybe she flipped, maybe it was a psychotic break or maybe she planned it.”

A female Lawyer, Yewande Oyediran, who was convicted of killing her husband Lowo, was on Monday sentenced to seven years in prison by Justice Muntar Abimbola of the Oyo State High Court sitting in Ibadan.

Yewande was convicted of manslaughter.

Yewande, a former staff of the Department of Public Prosecution in the Oyo State Ministry of Justice, was accused of killing her husband with a knife after a disagreement on February 2, 2016, at their residence in Akobo area of Ibadan.

She was arrested and arraigned in court but she pleaded not guilty to the murder charge preferred against her.

According to Justice Abimbola, Yewande’s sentence was to start running since the day of her arrest.

The day of judgement was initially slated for November 24, 2017 but the judge moved the day to November 27, 2017 because of other engagements at the Nigerian Judicial Commission.

The court said the convict was charged on a murder count and evidence pointed to Yewande as the killer of her husband; but witnesses presented by the defence counsel failed to establish the intent behind the killing.

The court held that going by the relationship between Yewande and her husband as husband and wife (at the time of the husband’s death), the killing was done without intent.

The couple had no child together.