Run-away wife killer arrested by police
The Police have arrested Mr. Lekan Shondi who has been on the run after allegedly killing his wife Ronke.
The police spokesperson, Dolapo Badmos, was quoted as saying that the police tracked the suspect down and that he would be transferred to the State Department of Criminal Investigation.
But Lekan indicate that Shondi claimed to have surrendered himself to the police.
The Punch had reported that Mr Shonde reportedly confirmed to it via a phone call, that his late wife Ronke, had angered him by flaunting her infidelity to his face after a romp with her lover in Abuja.
According to the report, Shonde who works in a depot in Apapa, Lagos state, said his wife of eight years had started dating the general manager of a publishing company, which prompted a change in her behaviour. Shonde went on to state how he was warned against marrying Ronke by his mother and how he regretted marrying her. Shonde admitted that he last beat his wife three years ago after a disagreement, and that contrary to reports that he beat his wife to death, that he hasn't touched her ever since then.
A police officer standing with Lekan Shonde after he reportedly surrendered to the police Photo credit: Sahara Reporters
Speaking through a phone line reportedly provided by his sister-in-law Bolatito, here's what he reportedly said while he was still on the run: “Since I married my wife eight years ago, she has never bought anything into the house. I gave her N5,000 on Saturdays and N3,000 on Tuesdays for soup. I also gave her money to make her hair. She was working with GTB as a marketer, but she got sacked three years ago. For that period, I was the one feeding her and taking responsibility for everything in the family. I would wash her pants, bathe the children and buy foodstuffs in the house. She later got a job with a publishing company owned by her uncle. But my wife changed sometime in March, when she started dating the general manger of a publishing company. My wife was going to the office from Monday to Sunday and she wasn't going to church again, all because of this man. She called him 'Eyitemi' (My own). Last week Friday, she went to Abuja and came back on Monday. She never told me that the lover was there with her. I learnt later that the lover was there and they slept together in the same room for four days. When she came back, she didn't know I was inside the house. She started talking with the man on the phone that he really had fun with him and I didn't know how to make love. She again said her private parts were paining her.”
According to Shonde, he had confronted his late wife and she confirmed he was in a relationship with another man. He said he had asked her to leave the house following the revelation, and she had refused. He also said they had argued over money issues the night before she was found dead. His story: “It was around 9pm on Thursday. We had paid our nanny N20,000. Then we needed to pay our children's teachers N30,000. I discovered she had taken N20,000 and when I asked her to return my money, she said she had spent it. I was angry because for the past three months, she didn't allow me to have sex with her. I pushed her hand away from me on the staircase and I left her. She never tumbled or fell. In fact that night, I bought the food that we both ate because she said she didn't want to cook. I didn't know anything had happened to her until Friday when I saw her on the staircase. I thought she was still pretending. I just left her and walked away.”
Shonde said he never took his wife's phone away, he also denied locking his children inside the house. He said he provided his late wife's needs and insisted he had no reason to kill her. “Jide, her family's second child lived with me for three to four years. Their eldest daughter, Bolatito, has lived with me too. Although I am not a saint, I don't drink, I don't smoke. I am a responsible man. The problem with my wife was that she was temperamental.
She shouted at me whenever she talked. I am a Lagos boy and I can be in this Lagos for the next 30 years and nobody would see me.” Ronke's elder sister Bolatito, said their mother had arrived Lagos from Ilorin, and that they didn't want to discuss the incident yet.
Here's what she said: “My mother just arrived from Ilorin and the family wants to devote time to attend to her; we don't want to talk about the incident. I am not in the right frame of mind to talk. But all I want to say is that her husband is somewhere out there and has been calling. The police should reach out to the telecommunications company to know where he is. He called me and he said he wanted to see me. He also said he wanted to see his children and I should tell him where they are because we might never see him again. Mummy is very sad with this, but she has forgiven him and does not want him to commit suicide.” Someone from the family reportedly said the domestic violence had been a steady occurrence in the Shonde's marriage, the source said they had once reported the matter to the police. Here's what the source said: “He always beat her because of his belief that she was into an extra-marital affair. The beating reduced a bit when the wife of her late brother who was one month pregnant before his death, moved into the house with them. She stayed for about eight months. She was like her saviour.” The marriage produced two children.