Widower of 35-year-old Martha Ifeoma Ifewulu who was gruesomely murdered in her home in the Oke- Afa area of Lagos, on December 1, has said his late wife was killed by her boyfriend.
The bereaved, Chief Lawrence Ugochukwu Ifewulu,(both pictured) in an interview with The Sun said the suspect and his late wife planned to kill him, sell off his property and flee to Canada with his four children.
The story reproduced below:
“Remember I did not complete a statement I made while speaking with you when this incident happened. I wanted to be sure of what I was going to say, though I had no two persons I hold as prime suspects. I am not having any doubt or maybe suspecting any two or three people. Even if he did not execute it by himself, he sent some people to carry out the operation. I am quite sure of who killed my wife; he is responsible. This is beyond suspicion. This guy went as far as telling me that he had been dating my wife for two years.
He went as far as telling me that if they kill me, they would sell my house and then he would take her and the kids to Canada. After all he told me about all that had been transpiring between my wife and himself, he expected me to divorce my wife but I did not do so. He would have thought that so many things were hidden and that if I should continue to live with my wife, she would tell me all and he would not be safe anymore.
“I gave the name of the person I am suspecting to them (the police) and I even wrote that in my statement. See the person I suspected, from day one (showing a picture). This is my wife beside him. This picture was downloaded from Facebook. We were only able to get this because the person that saw it saved it and after he copied the picture from Facebook, he said that he could no longer see it there some days after. It had been removed from Facebook.”
When asked what relationship existed between Collins and his wife, Ifewulu did not hesitate to say:
“He was her boyfriend. That is why I said my wife killed herself. The people that brought the picture from Facebook said this boy (Collins) made a comment, “Perfect Match” against the picture of him¬self and my wife which he posted on Facebook.”
The said picture, Sunday Sun gathered, was taken when Ifeoma (the deceased) and Collins attended the burial of her mother, which was held in October this year.
“From the very first day I saw her corpse, I said it even to the face of one of her siblings that she killed herself. I am not in doubt over what I am saying because of all that transpired,” lamented Ifewulu.
“I can remember that he (the suspect) gave me a call on the last Saturday of October, this same year, and from what he told me, they had been going out for two years. My wife opened up when I told her that I would forgive her for anything she must have done wrong. He belongs to this syndicate of boys who prey on married women and tell them lies about their husbands and before you know it, the women have put themselves in bondage,” he added.
The late Ifeoma is yet to be buried. It was gathered that the autopsy was performed as part of the ongoing police investigation. The relations of the deceased have been very helpful in the ongoing investigation to fish out the suspect.
Hear Ifewulu again:
“Her family has been cooperating. Even the brother of my wife knows this guy but he knows him as one of my workers. We went to meet his (the suspect’s town union here in Lagos and they promised that they would pass the in¬formation to the people in the village so that his people can come and answer. The police have even invited the caretaker of the house where he was living to make a statement.”
Further findings revealed that the deceased had on several occasions sent the two maids living with the family to deliver both food and money to the suspect whose house was not far from that of the Ifewulus.
On the fateful day of the incident on December 1, the corpse of late Ifeoma was discovered by her maid who had just come back from school with the children at 3.30pm. As they got into the house through the rear staircase, the maid and the children were confronted by the sight of blood splattered all over the floor, and flowing freely down the stairs. The maid tiptoed upstairs wondering where the blood had come from. It was then that she and the children saw the dead body of Ifeoma sprawled on the floor in a pool of blood.
The maid raised the alarm that attracted the attention of their female neighbour. The sight of Ifeoma with the silky-soft skin of her throat hideously slashed with a knife as one would do to a goat was gut-wrenching. The female neighbour equally screamed upon sighting the corpse. It was long sustained for help that brought other neighbours from nearby house rushing into the compound to know what was amiss. They too were shocked to the marrow.
While still sobbing, the female neighbour called Ifewulu on the phone, and frantically urged him to rush back home immediately, but the neighbour kept him in the dark about the death of his wife. All the way home, Ifewulu wondered what could have happened. It was when Ifewulu got home at 5.00pm that he was told about the murder of his wife. Soon after the chairman of the estate called the DPO of Ejigbo Police Division and informed him about the incident, and the police rushed to the scene within 30 minutes.
Until her death, Ifeoma was a staunch member of the Noble Fitness Club of Nigeria and was said to be so committed to keeping fit that she never missed her training sessions for anything.
Meanwhile, police sources told Sunday Sun that investigation in the case was ongoing, but added that no suspect had yet been arrested. While the police go through the painstaking process of investigating the murder, the four bereaved children of the couple – Chidera, Ugochuchukwu, Mesioma and Onyinyechi – are still overcome by grief.
Source: Sunday Sun
