PALM WINE TAPPER KILLS WIFE OVER N35,000

By NBF News
Click for Full Image Size

Nwankwo
His lot will now be that of an endless regret. Reason? Mr Nwankwo Nnabuobu, 52, who hails from Umunnagu Village, Achalla, in Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra State had, out of anger, allegedly murdered his wife and, has thus, lost his freedom. And his act is capable of leading to his spending the rest of his life in prison if convicted by the court.

Nnabuobu confirmed his regret when he told Daily Sun , 'how will I feel? I have been in deep sorrow. I can't explain what happened to me. The devil has won the battle now, I have been crying and regretting since then'.

Nnabuobu, a palm-wine tapper and rice farmer, said the death of his wife, 40-year-old Mrs Adanna Nnabuobu in his hands was unimaginable as it was the last thing he could have ever thought of doing.

His marriage to Adanna, according to Nnabuobu, was contracted 20 years ago in 1990 and the union has produced six children; three males and three females, with the first child now 19 years.

The union, he further said, was peaceful until 13 years ago when the deceased woman allegedly ran away from their home with the sum of N89, 000 which he gave her to start a business. But instead, she went to co-habit with another man, resident in the village and said to be her lover.

She was said to have used the money to maintain the lover boy and even bought him a motorcycle.

Mrs Nnabuolu was said to have refused to return home even after series of visits by the husband who claimed he had at several occasions asked the man to leave his wife alone.

In great pains and also realizing the consequences of his action, Nnabuobu said: 'We have been living in peace until now. The cause of the problem is that she said that she wanted to trade, I gave her money and this is the 13th year I gave her that money to trade with and she didn't give any account.

'I gave her N89, 000. Instead of trading with that money because she said she wanted to sell yams, she absconded with her boyfriend, she went to live with him; she didn't give me any money. The man she ran to lives in my village, but he is not a native of my village.

'She ran to him with all the money, she bought machine, bought stove, bought pots and they were cooking and eating. So, I went to the man to tell him to leave my wife for me.'

But instead of feeling remorseful and asking the woman to go back to her husband, the lover boy, according to the Nnabuobu, became daring and confronted him with dangerous weapons at the market with the intention to harm him.

The matter, he said, was reported to the police who arrested and detained the man, but to his greatest surprise, his late wife and her family people were sending food to her lover in the police cell and eventually got him released.

He said he later forgave the late wife when the family members came to him to apologize on her behalf and took her back, an action he said made matters worse as she showed no sign of repentance from her wayward life.

His words: 'After that, on our market day, the man came with a scissor to the market where I was selling palm fruits to stab me, people started shouting and I ran away. I invited the police and locked him up in our town, my wife and her people were cooking food and taking to him at the police station.

'They sourced money and bailed him and after that, my wife's people came and begged me to forgive her, I said okay, that I have forgiven her and she came back to my house'.

The last straw that broke the camel's back, he said, was when after he suffered from an accident having fallen from a palm tree and could not do any other work, his wife stole the little money he had saved which he would use in paying people to work for him and absconded again.

He said he became infuriated and had to waylay her on her way back from church as all his attempts and efforts to make her return the money failed and in the process he gave her machete cuts that led to her eventual death.

Hear him: 'The last one that happened was that after my wife came back she took the little money I saved which I intended to use to do some work; the money is N35, 000. She took it and ran away again, went and gave the same man the money.

'I looked everywhere for her so she could return my money to no avail, but I finally waited for her and met her on the road after the close of church service because that day was Sunday and I waited for her on the road.

'I was with a machete and I got so infuriated that I took the machete and cut her on the hand and leg. She was taken to the hospital and eventually she died'.

Though Nnabuobu said he couldn't remember what happened after then, especially the wide machete cut on his stomach, the police said he cut himself in an attempt to evade justice.

The Commissioner of Police, Mr Philemon Leha who confirmed the incident said, 'In a bid to escape justice and to fulfill the tradition of Achalla people, the suspect ripped open her stomach with a sharp object, her intestines gushed out and police rescued her and took her to hospital'.

The accused, he said, would be arraigned when police conclude their investigations.