Police detectives at the Criminal Investigation Department, CID, Panti, Lagos, are currently working to untangle the mystery behind the sudden death of a middle aged woman, Obiageli Anajekwu. She was alleged to have been battered by her husband, Ikechukwu Anajekwu on January 19, 2015. She ran to her friend, Chinyere Onyali’s house where she died two days later.
Pleading that he is innocent, the accused, Ikechukwu Anajekwu, 54, lamented that life has never been the same ever since he agreed to marry the late Obiageli.
“I am an international businessman and have lived in several countries in Europe. I even own an African restaurant in Brazil. My family insisted that I should invest at home and also marry a Nigerian woman. I had married a white woman and I have children in Brazil.
“One of my relatives introduced Obiageli to me, that she is the perfect woman on earth. Sometime in 2013, we had a traditional marriage and I decided to stay around in Nigeria so that she can enjoy me a little. Suddenly, I realised that she is fetish especially when she did not conceive after six months.She accused everyone in my house of being the brain behind her childlessness. Meanwhile, the little business that I was doing in Nigeria started to crumble. I was finding it hard to make a living. I travelled down to Anambra and met a Reverend father who prayed for me. He told me that the cause of my misfortune was within my family. He asked me to return home and search my house. I came back in September and searched and discovered a mobile shrine in my wife’s bag. It had my pictures and those of my family members. She then used pieces of a red cloth to tie all of them together. I confronted her and she denied any involvement but refused to swear.
“I reported the matter to her people and told them that I am no longer interested in the marriage. I made it official in December and returned to Lagos. I was surprised when on January 19, she came knocking at my door,” Ikechukwu narrated.
On what he felt transpired on the day he was accused of beating up Obiageli, Ikechukwu said that he simply asked her to go back to where she was coming from.
“I was already terrified when I discovered that she is the one behind my ordeal in Lagos. When I opened my gate and saw her, I shut it against her. I later drove out with my friend who came visiting. When I returned at about 11pm, I saw her still standing at the gate. She prevented me from entering the premises. I only dragged her out of my way and closed the gate. I received a call from my kinsman, Okonkwo, the next day that he wanted to discuss business with me. I came and was disgusted when I realised that it was because of Obiageli. He pleaded that I should accept her back and I told him that I am not interested.
She was looking beautiful as usual and very healthy. I was surprised when Okonkwo called me on Wednesday that she was dead. I know they killed her and not me, I can swear with my life. I was committed to the marriage, although she did not have a child. I have even taken her to several doctors just to show that I am committed to the marriage, but she is a witch,” Ikechukwu further said.
He insisted that the police should arrest Chinyere and her husband.
“They killed my wife and turned around to accuse me. I know that the autopsy will surely expose what happened to her. I have never touched her despite all the bad things that she did to me in the past. If she was wounded or battered, then she must have sustained the wounds during her trip to her friend’s house. I have a hard face but I am the most innocent man on earth”, he pleaded.
I only helped a friend -Suspect
Also interrogated is Obiageli’s friend, Chinyere Onyali Mbaukwu. She said the deceased, who was her close friend, came crying and asking for a place to sleep for the night.
Her words:
“On January 20, 2015, my friend, the late Obiageli came to my house at about 1am in the night, looking battered with swollen eyes. I asked her what the problem was and she said that she was battered by her husband. I was shocked because I have never heard her complain that there was any problem. To be on a safe side, I asked her to report the matter to Adolf police station which she did.
“It was then that she narrated all the hell she has been going through in her husband’s house because she has no child. I told her to go back to the village but she insisted that she was in love with her husband and will stop at nothing to be reconciled with him,” Chinyere narrated.
Continuing, she said:
“The next day we contacted one of their kinsmen known as Okonkwo. He was the one who mediated but her husband bluntly refused that he didn’t want to have anything to do with her again.
“On the third day being 21st, I returned home and saw her on the floor. She was convulsing and we kept praying for her while I searched frantically for a vehicle that could convey her to the nearest hospital. When we finally got one, she was no longer moving her body. We took her to the hospital where the doctor confirmed that she was dead.
“She was my friend and we met two years ago. I do not have any reason to kill her, I only accepted her because she is my friend. I even advised her to go to the church the next day but she refused. I was worried because she was looking bad that night. She told me that her husband was deported from Brazil for an alleged drug related crime.”
Neighbours differ
When Saturday Sun visited Ikechukwu’s house at number 7 Okoye Street, Iba Estate, Ojo area of Lagos, neighbours, who spoke on the incident, said they never heard the woman scream if there was any fight.
“She was a peaceful person and have never heard her voice outside. Maybe since their fence is very high, it is possible that the man had been beating her silently. I was told that she had gone back to the village because of irreconcilable differences which came to me as a surprise. Oga Ik, is a peace loving man,” a man who identified himself as Steve, said.
Another neighbour, Mama Chichi said
“Mr. Ikechuku will not touch his wife because he is a religious man. They are detaining an innocent person. It is because God wanted to exonerate him, that’s why she died in another person’s house.”
The reverse was, however, the case for Madam Folake, who said that Obiageli was maltreated by her husband.
“I am a woman and cannot lie because I know the consequence. She was always coming to my shop with swollen eyes to complain and I told her to return to the village. I was surprised when I learnt that she was dead. I was much more shocked when I was told that she died in Lagos after her husband battered her. I won’t be surprised if you see holes all over her head, that woman has suffered in the name of marriage”, she stated.
Confirming the incident, Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Kenneth Nwosu said investigation was ongoing to ascertain the true cause of death. He, however, advised couples to shun domestic violence as the aftermath is always disastrous.