Posted by By Juliana Francis on
A man, who was accused of using a Chelsea bottle to carve a neigbour's face in the Okota area of Lagos has been pleading his innocence in police custody.
A man, who was accused of using a Chelsea bottle to carve a neigbour's face in the Okota area of Lagos has been pleading his innocence in police custody.
Thirty-one-year-old Udo Gospel said he never used a bottle on Chinwen Ogbunise's face but " a glass cup, which I was drinking water with when she attacked me."
Whatever it was that the suspect used on his victim, one thing appeared certain. Ogbunise's face would never be the same again.
Gospel told Daily Sun that the feud between him and Ogbunise started last year. He said Ogbunise blamed him for the break-up of her relationship with his best friend, Thomas. He said he was not happy when he discovered that the lady was dating a naval officer, who, he had also learnt, rented the apartment for her. " Chinwen and I used to be very close before, suddenly she changed because she thought I was the person that told Thomas to call it quit with her," he said.
Gospel claimed that on the fateful day, he was sitting in the passage with other boys, holding a glass of water, when she jumped out of her room and bathed him and others with hot water.
He said: " She poured on us a bowl of hot water and before I knew it, I had used the glass cup on her face. True, it was not only me she poured the water on, but I attacked her because I knew it was me she had in mind to hurt."
Though Ogbunise admitted to have poured water on Gospel and his cronies in the heat of anger, but she denied that it was hot water. She explained that the matter started when Gospel and some boys in the compound began threatening her to move out of her room and leave because Peter Ejirogene, another suspect in police net, who they called chairman wanted to make use of the room. According to her, they picked on her because her room was next to Ejirogene's own. They allegedly said the man wanted to covert it to two rooms if only Ogbunise would move out.
Gospel was said to have forced his way into her room at about 9am, picked a bottle of Chelsea and smashed it across Ogbunise's face. He was further accused of taking some money and jewellery from the victim's room. He bolted, leaving Ogbunise crying for help as blood gushed out from the wound.
Ogbunise said after she treated herself, she had forgotten about the matter until the boys, who claimed to have come from Warri, started threatening to bathe her with acid since she still refused to move out. She said she had run to alert the police because she feared for her life.
Ejirogene said Ogbunise roped him into the matter because, " my wife told her to limit her coming into our room to talk. She suddenly started demanding repayment of okada money from my wife, which she paid for her on the day they both went to the market. She also asked for a refund of the money for a bottle of kerosene she gave my wife. I told her that it was not good. How can we now start asking each other to pay what we've used and borrowed from each other?"
However, Ogbunise wants the police to assist her recover some of the money she has spent on medical bills and surgery done on her face. She also wants them to make sure the boys sign an undertaking not to harm her again. Daily Sun gathered that detectives from the monitoring team in Ikeja are doing everything possible to make sure such reckless use of weapon on co-tenants was not repeated.