Posted on Feb 04, 2020
Untimely deaths, resulting from domestic violence, give Nigerians great cause for concern, OLADIMEJI RAMON reports
Kolade Arowolo will never forget Friday, June 24, 2011, the day he lost his cool, grabbed a knife from the kitchen and stabbed his wife, Titilayo, several times, killing her in the process.
Three years later, precisely on Friday, February 21, 2014, Arowolo was convicted of murder by Justice Lateefat Okunnu at the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja and sentenced to death by hanging.
For the sixth year running, he is still in Kirikiri Prison, weighed down by guilt and waiting for the hangman to come. If he had been nursing beautiful dreams of the future, as natural with all humans, the domestic violence of June 24, 2011 had put paid to them and altered the course of his life.
Arowolo’s ill-fated marriage to late Titilayo story should serve as a big lesson to everyone and an indication that domestic violence destroys lives and brings misery to many married couples. But it seemed that such a lesson eluded Ibadan-based lawyer, Yewande Oyediran, who, on February 2, 2016, stabbed her husband, Lowo, to death with a kitchen knife during an altercation at their Akobo residence in Ibadan, Oyo State.
Justice Muntar Abimbola of the Oyo State High Court in Ibadan, in November 2017, convicted Yewande of manslaughter and sentenced her to seven years imprisonment.
Although she was pardoned by the then Governor of Oyo State, Abiola Ajimobi, and regained her freedom in May 2019, Yewande can never erase from history the fact that she once took a human life. Whenever people talk about the danger of domestic violence, she will always be their point of reference.
Beyond Arowolo and Yewande’s cases, cases of domestic violence resulting in the death of a partner appear to be on the rise in Nigeria. For example, 49-year-old Udeme Otike-Odibi is currently standing trial before the Lagos State High Court in Igbosere for allegedly stabbing her husband, Symphorosa, to death and mutilating his corpse with a knife on May 3, 2018 in their home on Diamond Estate, Sangotedo, Ajah, Lagos.
Otike-Odibi, a lawyer, is currently an awaiting-trial inmate at Kirikiri Prison. She faces the death sentence if convicted by Justice Adedayo Akintoye.
Only last week, Abuja-based Maryam Sanda was sentenced to death for murdering her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, in November 2017. The mother of two, it was gathered, pounced on her husband with a kitchen knife at their residence on 4 Pakali Close, Wuse 2, Abuja and stabbing him to death.
Justice Yusuf Halilu of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja pronounced that Sanda would pay for Bello’s blood with her own blood because “it has been said that thou shall not kill. Whoever kills in ‘cold blood’ shall die in ‘cold blood’.”
Confirming this murder, the spokesman for the Katsina State Police Command, Gambo Isah, said Mrs Shamsudeen’s neighbours reported seeing her with a blood-stained knife.
Also, on the day of the 2015 presidential election, a 26-year-old pregnant woman, Onyiyechi Akunne, reportedly stabbed her husband, Abuchi Akunne, to death, following an argument over “Baba Ijebu” lotto tickets.
Onyiyechi was sentenced to seven years imprisonment on May 8, 2017 by Justice Josephine Oyefeso of the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja.
In June 2018, a 24-year-old schoolteacher, Olamide Akinbobola, appeared before the Lagos State Magistrates’ Court in Ebute Meta, for fatally stabbing her husband, Dare Akinbobola, on May 30, 2018 at No. 1, Olupebi Abijo Street, Gbaga, Ikorodu.
In January, 2019, 35-year old Uwaila of Ovbiogie village in the Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State shot his wife and two sons over alleged infidelity.
While the nation was still dealing with the emotional reactions to Sanda’s widely-publicised conviction, news broke that 19-year-old Rabi Shamsudeen of Danjanku village, Malumfashi Local Government Area of Katsina State had stabbed her 25-year-old husband, Shamsudeen Salisu, to death.