A 49-year-old man, Jafaru Sougie Araromi Street in Oshodi
area of Lagos State on Friday allegedly killed his wife of 26 years. Jafaru had
reportedly slit the wife’s throat with a knife around 2am but she was
discovered dead at 4am by Richmond and his aunt who raised the alarm. The
suspect was said to have poisoned himself thereafter and was vomiting in the
bathroom when one of their children, Richmond, woke up.
Forty-six-year-old Roselin sold frozen foods in the Ijora area and was
said to be the breadwinner of the family as the killer husband was
jobless.
According to Punch,
Jafaru had serially assaulted Roseline on the grounds of being
unfaithful. Apart from the infidelity allegation, he reportedly beat the
mother of five children for collecting gifts from her relatives for the
upkeep of the family.
Richmond, 16, told our correspondent
that he could not explain what came over his father to have committed
the act, saying he started behaving strangely afterwards.
He said, “My three siblings, our aunt
and I slept in the living room while dad and mum were inside. Around
4am, dad called me from the bathroom. I went to meet him but he did not
say anything. I went outside to urinate and when I came back, I checked
the bathroom and saw him lying down, vomiting some black substance and
excreting on his body. I think he poisoned himself. I told my aunt to
wake mum up to attend to him. But she didn’t wake up.
“I shone a flashlight on her and saw
blood on the bed with a wide cut in her neck. I fainted when we
discovered she was dead. We later asked dad how it happened, he said
somebody entered and did it whereas the compound gate is always locked
in the night.
“It was mum that took care of us. She
was the one sponsoring my elder brother, Collins, who just gained
admission into a university in Abia State. I don’t know our fate now.
“The landlord of our former rented house
on Michael Street sent us out because dad always quarrelled with mum.
We were also sent away from Banjoko Street for the same reason.”
The aunt, Veronica Imomoh, who confirmed the assault, said she was surprised the woman did not scream during the attack.
She added, “Our family had warned him to
stop beating her. He didn’t have any work and she was the one feeding
him and paying the rent. Anytime she collected gifts from her relatives,
he quarrelled with her. He would accuse her of sleeping with men and
beat her up. There was a time he took her to our village in Edo State to
swear whether she was cheating on him or not and she did.
“Yesterday (Thursday) he demanded
N10,000 from the wife, saying he wanted to travel. She was trying to
raise the money from her friends. But I don’t know whether that was the
immediate cause of the incident.”
A neighbour, Simeon Nnoron, said he had
tried to prevail over Jafaru to stop assaulting the deceased to no
avail, adding that he suspected he was on drug and wanted to use the
woman for rituals.
Roselin’s elder sister, Mrs. Kate
Yakubu, said she had wanted to divorce the husband two years ago but was
enjoined to rescind the decision.
She said, “They fought two years ago
because he wanted her to stop selling the frozen foods. During the
argument, he held her in the neck and removed strands of hair from her
head with his teeth. She left the house for a week to live with his
brother in Masasa. She wanted to quit the marriage but we begged her not
to because of the children. There was a time he said he smelt sperm in
her pants after she returned from Seme where she normally bought goods.”
The Deputy spokesperson, Lagos State
Police Command, DSP Damasus Ozoani, said the suspect had been
transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department for further
investigation.
“It was a murder case and the husband
was suspected to be under the influence of drug. The case has been
transferred to the SCID and investigation has commenced,” he said.
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