The Christmas season is often regarded as a time of love and sharing but it was a tragic period for a particular Lagos family. OLALEKAN OLABULO reports on the events that led to the death of a man who had a quarrel with his wife and died in the process during the Yuletide.
The family of Romanus Odo, a resident of London Barber Street in Majidun area of Lagos State, like every other family, had wished and prayed for a merry Christmas. The family could not celebrate Christmas as they had wished as a result of cash crunch. Things grew from bad to worse for them in the evening of Christmas Day, when the head of the family was stabbed to death in the course of a quarrel with the wife.
It was not clear what actually caused the scuffle that led to the death of Romanus. Early reports from neighbours of the deceased had it that he was stabbed to death allegedly by his wife, after he refused to give out money from food.
His wife, 37-year-old Christiana, has since been arrested and transferred to the homicide section of the Criminal Investigations Department of the state police command, where she is helping the police to unravel the circumstances surrounding the death of her husband.
Residents of the area’s account of the incident was, however, different from that of the couple’s 17-year-old son, Chidera, who blamed the incident on his father’ s purported drunken state.
Chidera, while speaking with Sunday Tribune claimed that the tragedy could have been avoided if the deceased was not drunk.
Contrary to claims that his mother took the knife and stabbed his father, Chidera also alleged that it was his father that went for the knife with a threat to stab Christiana.
He equally blamed the incident on his father’s belief that men were sleeping with his wife, hence his alleged. This he blamed on refusal to give the family money for food during the Christmas celebrations.
“My father accused my mother of infidelity, which led to their fight on that fateful day,” he claimed.
Chidera, whose name literally means ‘what God has written’ added that, “On December 25, when my mother and I came back from the market where we went to sell rice and pepper soup, she was trying to sleep when my father, who had gone out to drink, came back and started disturbing her.
“My father was shouting that she (my mother) had gone to see some of her male friends, and this led to an argument between the two of them: “Before we knew what was happening, my dad picked a broken bottle and threatened to stab my mother. I and one uncle Kola persuaded him before he eventually dropped the bottle.
“After we had collected the bottle, he went inside the room and brought out a knife, threatening to stab her. My mother moved to collect the knife . It was when they were dragging the knife between them that it pierced his stomach,” Chidera alleged.
On efforts to save his father, Chidera said: “Immediately after the incident, I and some residents tried to rush him to a nearby clinic, when he gave up the ghost and my mother was held by the residents, who invited the police to arrest her and moved the remains of my father to the mortuary.
A source at Owode Onirin Police station also narrated how the police got involved in the incident. The source said: “It was the landlord that reported the incident at our station. What we heard was that the woman asked her husband for money, to cook food for Christmas, but he declined.
“A quarrel was said to have started and the woman reportedly picked a kitchen knife and stabbed the husband.
“It was a resident that came to report at the station that the man fought with his wife. In the process, the woman stabbed him to death. The police visited and photographed the scene. The suspect was arrested and the corpse deposited in a morgue. The case is still under investigation as we await the result of the autopsy. Meanwhile, the case has been transferred to the SCIID.”
The Police Public Relation Officer of the state police command, Dolapo Badmos, confirmed that investigations were ongoing on the incident.
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