Posted by By Chioma Okezie- Okeh on
If he had known that the sum of money that might change his life for good was inside a luggage he set ablaze, Ogbonna Okoro might have have controlled his temper.
• If my wife can send me to jail, it's over with the marriage - hubby
If he had known that the sum of money that might change his life for good was inside a luggage he set ablaze, Ogbonna Okoro might have have controlled his temper.
Ogbonna, father of three who hails from Ebonyi State had on November 1, at his home at No 119, Ebute Igbogbo road Ikorodu, packed his wife's belongings which contained N130,000 and set it ablaze. He was immediately arrested by the Ikorodu police station that charged him to court after carrying out thorough investigation.
At the court he pleaded not guilty and was sentenced to six months imprisonment with hard labour.
The charge sheet read that you: Ogbonna Okoro on the 1st November 2007 at about 3.00am at No.
119 Igbogbo in the Ikorodu did unlawfully destroy an Echolac bag containing the sum of one hundred and thirty thousand naira, N130, 000, cloths valued at fifty thousand naira, bangles and wrist watch valued at five thousand and six pairs of shoes, valued at five thousand naira, property of one Christiana Nwagwu by burning them.
Anger
Before he was whisked away to the prison, Ogbonna, 33, told Saturday Sun that anger pushed him to his problem although if he had seen the money he would have taken it. According to him, he had a little misunderstanding with his wife. While they were quarreling, his sister in-law, Christiana Nwagwu challenged him. ' She warned me to stop scolding my wife, the one I married with my money." Ogbonna felt insulted and diverted his anger to Christiana who picked a stick and came after him. ' My wife and her sister joined forces and beat me into a state of coma. When I became unconscious they abandoned me and went to sleep. When I woke up at about 3.30pm I noticed that I was alone."
He felt so bad, hurt and humiliated that he went straight into his house and packed the wife's property and set it ablaze. ' I saw her as an ingrate. After everything that I have done for her she could abandon me not minding whether I was dead or alive. I wanted to destroy all the good things that I bought for her to teach her a lesson. I did not know there was money in the box. The most annoying thing is that the money I wanted to use to finish the roofing of my house was also in that box."
Before he joined the warders' colony, he vowed: ' I am through with this marriage it is over, if my wife can have the heart to send me to jail. I regret not controling myself, now I have to spend six months of my life in jail."
Tears
Heartbroken, Ogbonna's wife, Felicia, insisted that she never sent her husband to jail. According to her, the owners of the money that was set ablaze decided to report the case to the police. ' I know my husband and I am used to his kind of attitude. This is not the first time he had beaten me up. He was drunk that day and was not in control of what he was doing. I did not know that it would lead him to the extent that he went. I still love my husband and would visit him in jail as much as I could."
Felicia said she had a little misunderstanding with her husband, in the process, her sister Christiana who was around yelled at him to let her be. ' She told him to let me be but he took offence. He now faced my sister and started beating her. They ran away from the room only to return the next day and saw the things, he had set ablaze.
Christiana on her own part said she wanted to calm him down, as he was drunk. 'I used a stick on him and ran away. The next day I saw that he had burnt my cloths and personal effects."