Posted by By Paul Sanusi & Tunde Lemuel on
For allegedly beheading her husband, a woman is currently cooling her heels in the cell at the Iperu Divisional Police Station, Ogun state.
For allegedly beheading her husband, a woman is currently cooling her heels in the cell at the Iperu Divisional Police Station, Ogun state.
Like a demented person, the suspect, simply known as Iya Ibadan, was alleged to have, on Wednesday, sneaked into her husband's room in the night when he was asleep at their 44, Jalugba Street, Iperu Remo, Ogun state, and dealt him several machete blows. The cuts severed the man's head, killing him instantly.
After killing the deceased, identified as Mr. Sabi Owolabi, 55, the suspect carried his body and dumped it in a pit latrine at the back of the house.
The lid was blown off the dastardly act when the lower part of the deceased which could not be forced into the latrine was sighted by a neighbour.
News of the murder threw the rustic Iperu town into confusion as thousands rushed to the house to witness the grisly scene.
The matter was reported to the police and the suspect was promptly arrested.
Narrating the incident to P.M.News in Iperu, yesterday, Chief Nojeem Sanu-Meelu, who claims to be a brother to the deceased, said his brother was butchered like a cow by the woman, and that she tried to hide the murder until luck ran out on her.
'On Wednesday, my mother called me and told me that she heard that Iya Ibadan had killed Sabi. I couldn't believe it. So, I went to Sabi's residence, but Iya Ibadan told me that he had travelled to Ikorodu to meet a herbalist and that he would not be back for three days.
She told me that the herbalist planned to take him overseas. I didn't believe her but I had to leave. Later I sent another person to the house to ask for my brother but Iya Ibadan told him that he had gone to work and would not be back until 7 p.m.
'Later, somebody came to tell me that she was packing her load and was about leaving the house. I quickly called some men and we invited the police.
'The police searched the compound and discovered blood-stained clothes. At the backyard, we saw a heap of stones on an abandoned pit latrine and the DPO asked her to open it but she refused. This made the police to accuse her of killing her husband but she denied it.
'To convince us that she did not kill her husband, she removed some stones and we saw her husband's legs while the remaining parts of the body, from the head, arms down to the waist, were stuck in the unused pit toilet.
'When the body was pulled out and the clothes she used in wrapping the head was removed, we were able to ascertain how the man died. 'His throat had been cut open. She was then led into her husband's room. There were blood stains on the walls, the bed and under the bed. She was told to open her room but when she did not, it was forced open by the police.
'As we entered, she tried to move some things in one corner of the room and the DPO ordered his men to check that spot. A cutlass was found where she stood. On close examination, we saw blood stain which had not been properly washed off. Even at that point she was still denying any involvement in the death of her husband.
'She was busy accusing Sabi's relatives as the culprits who had murdered their own son just to implicate her. 'She was then handcuffed and taken to the Divisional Police Station, Iperu.'
P.M.News gathered that the deceased and the wife had been married for over five yeas but had no child, though they both have children from their previous marriages. The man was said to have visited Lagos, on Monday, to collect rent proceeds.
Iya Ibadan was said to have sent a small boy to sharpen a cutlass for her two days before the incident. Efforts to speak with the woman at the Iperu Police Division, where she is being detained, proved abortive as the Divisional Police Officer, CSP Michael Falade, directed P.M.News to the PPRO, State Police Command, Eleweran. The PPRO could not be reached at press time.