husband allegedly kill wife

Man in custody for allegedly killing wife

By Patience Ogbo April 6, 2011 02:06AM

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Residents of Temidire Ikola, Ipaja, a Lagos suburb, are mourning the alleged murder of a housewife in the area, Titi Tao, by her husband.

Mrs Tao, a mother of five children, was allegedly killed by her husband, Tao, a bricklayer, during a fight in their apartment at 5 Temidire Street, Ipaja, on April 3. Residents said they heard Mr Tao accusing his wife of infidelity after she allegedly received a phone call late in the evening.

The fight

"We heard him shouting and calling his wife a prostitute," said a resident, who did not want to be named. "Tao is a drunk and everybody knows him in this area as a wife beater. Despite the wife said she was receiving a call from her brother but he kept accusing her of infidelity. They quarrelled but later we started hearing noise from their room, they were fighting but nobody could enter as the door had been locked from inside.

After beating her, he left her in the room and he went to beer parlour to drink his usual Paraga (local gin) and Igbo (marijuana). When we entered the house, she we saw her lifeless body. We even thought she was unconscious but efforts to rescue her and take her to the hospital did not yield any result as she was already dead."

Angry neighbours

Reacting to the development, residents of the area attempted to lynch the suspect before police officers came to his rescue. "Sympathizers flooded the house as soon as her death spread," said the source. "They gathered wood and petrol and some youth went to the drinking joint and dragged him to the house. They beat the hell out of him, said he must die for killing his wife, but officers from the Alagolo Police Station came to this rescue."

The victim was the only female child of her aged parents. Residents say one of her children died last year, and described her as a gentle and quiet woman. "Titi was a good and hardworking woman despite the fact that people told her to leave Tao because of his rascality," said a friend of the victim who gave her name as Mama Aina. "She still stayed with him despite all his waywardness. Now he has killed her and left the parents in agony because she is the only female child they have."

Samuel Jinadu, the Lagos State police spokesman, said the case is under investigation. "The man has been arrested and taken to the state Criminal Investigation Department at Panti, Yaba for interrogation," he said.