Black Xmas in Abeokuta As Man Beats Wife To Death
By Felix Mordi
Contrary to the joy that pervaded all homes, particularly the Christendom, in commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ on Wednesday, December 25, 2019, it was a different narrative in a part of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, where a young man turned his wife to a punching bag and, at the end, snuffed life out her.
The man, 37-year-old Mutiu Sonola, now in police custody for alleged culpable homicide, was said to have been provoked by the deceased, 34-year-old Zainab, and unable to control his temperament, he pounced on her till she stopped breathing.
The late Zainab’s father, also residing in Abeokuta, learnt of the sad incident through a telephone call and made for the couple’s residence.
He was left with no option than to battle for the resuscitation of his daughter, which he tried by rushing her to the General Hospital, Ijaiye, only to be shocked by the confirmation of the doctor on duty that she had passed on.
Distraughted by the development, Zainab’s father went to Ibara Police Station and lodged a complaint, following which the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), SP Dada Olusegun, detailed his detectives to apprehend the suspect, who had had to bolt on realizing that his wife was dead.
He went into hiding but was fished out by the crack detectives.
A preliminary investigation by the police, however, revealed that the suspect was in the habit of battering the late wife at the slightest provocation, a misnomer that turned out to hunt him
The State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, in a press release made available to Crime Puzzle, stated that “The corpse of the deceased has been deposited at General Hospital mortuary for autopsy”, adding that the State Commissioner of Police, Kenneth Ebrimson, had ordered the immediate transfer of the suspect to the Homicide Section of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Abeokuta, for further investigation and prosecution.