IN another crime of passion, a 38-year-old mother of three, Madam Gladys Okoh has been brutally hacked to death in Benin by her jealous lover after he reportedly found male condoms inside her handbag.
The suspect, Mr Osaremwinda Omobude Idumwonyi, 46 was said to have been enraged after the discovery and promptly accused the divorcee of two-timing.
The latest murder brings to three the body counts of young women killed by their green-eyed lovers in the last three weeks- in the Edo state capital and comes on the heels of the stabbing to death of an 18-year-old girl by her 19-year-old boy over an allegation of infidelity.
Also recently, two other men had killed their lovers for engaging in the sizzling romance with other men.
The victim had reportedly spent the night with her ill-fated lover in a secret rendezvous before the killing in the presence of her aged grandmother at Ehiyoba Street, off Aifuwa Street, off the main road of Sokponba last week.
But it could not be ascertained whether the condoms were found inside the deceased bag while she was with him in his room the previous night or at her grannie’s rented apartment when he came visiting on a fateful day.
A source at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Benin, however, disclosed that the suspected killer told the police that he did not intentionally kill his lover.
According to the source, on interrogation, the suspect explained that the woman grabbed a kitchen knife in a fit of anger to stab him following a heated argument but he overpowered and mistakenly stabbed her thrice in the stomach in self defence. Rushed to the hospital in critical condition, she died a few days later.
The blood-stained knife was allegedly recovered from the deceased kitchen by police investigators when he was arrested and taken home for a search.
The Edo State Police spokesman Mr Chidi Nwabuzor could not be reached for comment but a police source said that investigations into the alleged murder were on, assuring that the suspect will be docked once they are concluded.
