Posted by By CHRISTOPHER OJI and JULIANA FRANCIS on
A "prophetess," Patience Odia, who allegedly served a man and his four kids a meal of rice and stew laced with poison for supper in Agbado, a border town between Lagos and Ogun states, is now in police net.
A "prophetess," Patience Odia, who allegedly served a man and his four kids a meal of rice and stew laced with poison for supper in Agbado, a border town between Lagos and Ogun states, is now in police net.
Pictures of the man and two of his four children, who died after eating the food prepared by Patience, the live-in lover were released Monday as police commenced investigation into the tragedy.
Helping the investigators is the young "prophetess," Patience Odia, who had allegedly schemed her way into the heart and home of the father of four who had just retired as a manager with Guinness Nigeria Plc and said to have been paid N10 million as gratuity.
Like a thief in the night, Patience was said to have sneaked into John Orukpe's happy home posing as a spiritualist with an answer to some of the man's problems.
She was able to get the man to send his bona fide wife packing after giving Orukpe a "message" that the wife was evil.
As soon as the wife moved out, Patience moved in. When the man's family protested, Patience allegedly convinced Orukpe to pack out of his Iju home and move to another house he built near the Railway crossing at the Alagbado area of Ogun State.
It never occurred to the 45-year-old "loverboy" that he was being led into a snare until four days after he received his gratuity.
On Saturday night, the man had just returned from an outing; the four children were home including Henry, the 18-year-old son that just took his Joint Matriculation Examination (JME) on that day and the eldest daughter, Saviour. The family was hungry, and Patience had a meal of rice waiting as supper. Orukpe and his children ate. And it was the last supper for the man, his son, Henry and the daughter Saviour.
Police said two other children are still battling for life at the General Hospital in Lagos.
While she was being quizzed at the Ayuwon Police Station in Ogun State, Patience said the rice couldn't have killed the victims because she had shared the meal with them.
Orukpe's elder brother who gave his name as A.O. Orukpe, told Daily Sun that the family saw trouble coming when the "prophetess" snatched their son from his legal wife.
He said: "The woman must have done what she did because of my brother's gratuity. Last year, some masked men were sent to kill him but they didn't meet him at home."
Orukpe's neighbours told Daily Sun that the bodies were found in different rooms, foaming in the mouth and vomiting rice.
The neighbours also found a polythene bag filled with money, documents and a packet of rat poison, which had been handed over to the police, who have ordered for an autopsy on the bodies as they transferred the case to the Homicide Section of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) in Ogun.