Woman who slit her neighbour's throat says spirits did it

In what is one of the most silliest of excuses for committing a crime, a Lagos based woman who murdered her neighbour by slitting her throat during a quarrel says it was some evil spirits which had possessed her that committed the act and not her.

The 40-year-old Okigwe, Imo State born woman, Helen Okeke, allegedly murdered her neighbour identified as Rosemary, during a fracas in their compound in the Ikota area of Ajah, of the state, a few days ago.

The unmarried mother of one has been begging the family of the deceased to forgive he as she did not know what she was doing at the time of the murder as she was not in control of herself during the incident.

According to other neighbours, the incident which sent shock waves around the Ikota community, happened when the late Rosemary who was reportedly preparing for her wedding, returned home and observed that the clothes she had spread on her door had been soiled with urine.

She was said to have suspected Okeke and reported to the landlady who pacified her.

But a few minutes after the two women left the presence of the landlady, neighbours were said to have heard cries for help and before they got to the scene, Okeke had slit Rosemary’s neck with a knife and the bloody knife was found in her hand.

Rosemary was rushed to a hospital but she died on her way while the matter was reported at the Ajah Police Division, which was later transferred to the State Department of Criminal Investigation, Yaba.

But Okeke, a cleaner in a local company, has been insisting she was not the one that killed Rosemary buy an evil spirit.

Hear her:

“I have been living in that house for more than two years. The first time we fought, she shone her torch on me and I queried why she did that. She then hit me with the torch, and that was how we fought.

On that day, she carried a bucket of water and stood in front of my room saying I should come out if I know I was woman enough.

I had just returned from where I went to buy bread and was inside my room. I did not want to come out.

But a spirit just entered into my room and entered me. I was shaking uncontrollably and that was when I went out.

I took a bucket of water and poured it on the floor in front of my room. But Rosemary poured her bucket of water on me, and that was when the fight started.

It was during the fight that I saw a knife in front of my room and I did not know how it entered my hand.

I cannot explain what happened next. I have never had this kind of experience in my life. It was while I was at the police station that they said she was dead.

I need forgiveness from Rosemary and her family. I want people to learn from my example that fighting is not good.”