Banker arrested for allegedly torturing wife to death in Lagos

Punch reports that the 32-year-old Adejo reportedly tortured his 28-year-old wife with a belt, as well as butchering her with a machete during an argument.

It was also gathered that apart from the brutal torture of his wife, Adejo also forced his wife to drink a local insecticide known as 'Otapiapia' which led to her death.

The five-year-old son of the couple, Richard, who witnessed the ugly scene, reportedly told Punch reporters that after beating his mother, his father forced the dangerous insecticide down her throat.

“I am I am five-years-old. My daddy beat my mummy with a belt; machete her here [shows arms], machete her here [shows legs].

He used the belt on her here [points at face]; he forced my mummy to drink 'otapiapia' [insecticide]. .

My daddy said my mummy should get out of the house. My mummy said no. In the night, my daddy woke my mummy up and said, ‘Mosquito is too much, let me go and buy otapiapia’.

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My daddy forced my mummy to drink it. She shook her head. She vomited. My daddy slapped my mummy. My mummy did not do anything to him. My daddy gave her one blow. My daddy kicked her.

My daddy told her to get out of the house and carry her load. Small blood came out. My daddy slapped her, kicked her, machete her, blow her, and put 'otapiapia' in her mouth and in the food,” the toddler said.

Also speaking on the sad incident, the victim’s mother, Mrs. Kate Jonathan, said that their son had given more graphic details of the incident to family members, police authorities and officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Justice.

She explained that her daughter had packed out of her matrimonial house five days to the incident and was living with her when she decided to return for a party at the children’s school and she never returned alive.

“I was called on the telephone by an unknown number around 4 pm on Sunday, November 12, 2017. The caller said, ‘your daughter’s husband has killed her at Oworo’. He dropped the call.

Around 5 pm when I got to their house, I discovered that the house was locked up. There were two boys guarding the house and they refused to open the door to me, saying the owner of the house instructed them not to open the door.

I didn’t see my daughter or her husband. I was begging them to open the door when I saw Richard jumping up through the window. He saw me and asked the boys to open the door, but they refused.

I broke the louvers of the window. The boy climbed a stool and said from inside, ‘my father has killed my mother and taken her away.’”

Mrs. Jonathan said she reported the case at the Oworonshoki Police Station where she was told that the suspect had already reported that his wife committed suicide by taking the local insecticide, Sniper.

It was also learned that Adejo had already deposited the body of his wife in the Gbagada General Hospital mortuary and had also gone to obtain court documents to enable him to bury her without even informing her family.

He was, however, arrested when he returned to the police station to obtain a certain document that the hospital demanded following the complaint by his mother-in-law.

The suspect, according to the police, has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department [SCIID], Yaba.

The police also ordered the removal of the corpse of the deceased from the Gbagada General Hospital mortuary to the morgue of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, for an autopsy.

The victim’s mother who claimed to have visited the mortuary said Maureen’s had machete cuts and other torture marks on her body.

“My daughter, who worked as the manager of my chemical company had, about a week to the incident, complained that her husband said we would soon see her obituary.

I sent my eldest daughter to accompany her to the house to know what happened. The man begged and said he was only joking. He said he really loved his wife. I insisted that she packed out of the house.

She was in my house for three days before she said she wanted to return home because her children’s school would be having a cultural party.

She left and went to the party with her husband on Saturday. It was that night that she was brutalized and killed by the husband. From what we saw in the mortuary, she had blood in her nostrils and deep cuts in her hands and legs.”

The victim’s mother asked that Maureen’s three children, namely, Richard, five; Henry, three; and Omowunmi, six months, be released to her.

However, the 83-year-old mother of the suspect, Florence Adejo, has denied that her son murdered his wife, saying the deceased's family just wanted to implicate him.

Madam Adejo said:

“He came to knock on the door of my house late that night. He fell on the ground and started weeping and lamenting that his wife had destroyed him.

A crowd gathered in front of the house where I am the landlady. They tried to console him. He said his wife took Sniper. He said he thought it was a joke until their son, Richard, went to bring the container of the insecticide.

She was taken to a private hospital where she was initially rejected before she was taken to the general hospital where she died. I was told her mother sells the insecticide and she brought it home for mosquitoes.

Why she decided to drink it is what is beyond my understanding. My son said they didn’t have any disagreement between them and she was not mentally ill.”

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The State Police Public Relations Officer [PPRO], SP Chike Oti, who confirmed the incident and the arrest of Adejo, said investigations were ongoing into the incident.

“The man came to report that his wife committed suicide. The DPO put some questions to him. We thought we should investigate further to know what really happened because there are some doubts we need to clear on the matter.

The police are not accepting the claim of suicide hook, line, and sinker. The matter is at the SCIID and investigations are ongoing,” SP Oti said, vowing to pursue the case to its conclusive end.