Pregnant wife and her husband fought with knives days before their home got burnt –Neighbours of man found dead in uncompleted building

An uncompleted building
| credits: File copy

In the remote creeks of Ojo Local Government Area of Lagos State, Ijagemo community lies peacefully with its few residents.

But that peace was shattered on Tuesday in a shocking occurrence that left the residents wondering what went wrong.

As twilight approached that day, sleeping residents in the quiet community were suddenly rpused from sleep by noise coming from the direction of NEPA Phase 1 Road, Ijagemo.

Saturday PUNCH learnt that an observant neighbour of Esther and Kenneth Peter, a couple who lived in the area, made frantic calls to the police and also summoned other residents to a suspicious fire at the couple’s residence.

The couple’s house, which used to be an uncompleted building with just two small rooms, had become a sad picture of ruin.

Shattered window glass and asbestos littered the premises.

The neighbour, who raised the alarm about the fire, was a trader living one house apart from the Peters. She was not around at the time our correspondent visited the community on Thursday.

Ladun, a secondary school student who was awake when the shouts rang out, took photographs of the scene.

“When we heard the noise, we went out to see what was happening. But because it was night, nobody could do much because the fire did not even burn for long. People poured water into the house through the window and the fire stopped,” she said.

When the fire was quenched, the residents made a shocking discovery – the charred body of a man. It did not take residents long to say it must be that of Kenneth, since only he and his wife lived there.

Ebenezer Alu, one of the men involved in the activities that followed the discovery of the body, told Saturday PUNCH that the first thing that people asked was about Esther’s whereabouts.

He said, “In fact, immediately, we saw Ebenezer’s body and we could not see his wife, a lot of people concluded she must have something to do with his death.

“The incident occurred around 3am and that early morning we had to send out a search party to look for the wife. We eventually saw her somewhere, hiding in the back of a house.

“She would probably have been lynched if not because it was not broad daylight. Apart from that, she kept saying she was pregnant and begging us.”

When our correspondent went to Ijagemo, the case was still a hot subject of discussion in the community.

One of the residents told our correspondent that few days before the incident, the couple fought over an issue, during which they inflicted injuries on themselves.

While our correspondent was taking pictures of the ruins, a woman living opposite the Peters came to ask about his mission.

The woman, who identifed herself as Mama Fati, told our correspondent that the fight between the couple had to do with an aborted pregnancy.

She said, “The wife is even pregnant now, so I’m not really sure of which pregnancy was terminated. They fought and stabbed each other.”

Some residents said they wondered what could have led to the fire, noting that there was suspicion that the woman may have angrily set the house ablaze.

A resident, who identified himself as Sola, said, “We asked her a series of question when we caught her before taking her to the police. We asked if she hit him with something on the head, she said no. We asked if she stabbed him first, she shook her head. But when we asked if she first poisoned him before setting the house on fire, she looked down without saying anything.”

Our correspondent also learnt from some other neighbours of the Peters that Kenneth beat his wife regularly. They also said he regularly smoked Indian hemp.

“People are accusing this woman not because the man was a good man himself. He beat his wife regularly. I really don’t know if it was the regular beating that pushed the woman to the wall,” a neighbour said.

Kenneth, who was said to be from the South-East, did not have a real job. He was suspected to be dealing in Indian hemp.

Esther was also unemployed before the incident.

When Esther was arrested, she had her property, which consisted of a sack of clothes, with her. She also had her two-year-old son with her.

Our correspondent saw evidence that the couple were undoubtedly living a harsh life. Their burnt out house showed little evident of anything tangible.

Deputy Police Public Relations Officer, Lagos State Command, Damascus Ozoani, said Esther’s version of the incident was that a candle caused the fire.

Ozoani said, “She said she was not at home when a candle they lit in the house ignited the fire. She told us that she went to fetch water at the time.

“She was arrested while trying to flee the area. The body of the husband has been deposited at Yaba Military Hospital mortuary. There will be an autopsy. We are doing all we can to determine what really happened. The case is currently being investigated by the State Criminal Investigation Department.”