A Lover, A Murderer The world was jolted by the news, last week, of how a young, jobless man who was secret lover to the Chief Executive Officer, CEO of Edmark International in Nigeria, killed the woman in cold blood. The assailant also bolted with her N8 million in cash. This high profile murder has again brought to the fore, the extent to which desperadoes, pretending to be in love, can go. In sequence, Tayo Adelaja, Head, Special Investigations, brings you the long list of cases of pretended love affairs that crashed with one lover as assailant and the other as victim. They are moving episodes of how wondrous love affairs ended up as cheap homicide. The past few years had witnessed celebrated homicide cases involving husbands and wives as well as lovers. Paradoxically, why has love gone sour? Why have people who professed love for each other found it convenient to take their partners’ life? Is there no other way for couple to resolve their squabbles without taking one others’ life? The declaration of a 31-year- old man, Kelechi Williams, by the Lagos State Police Command late last month for allegedly strangulating his lover, the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Edmark International, Njideka Lizzy Nzewe, to death brought to the fore the numerous cases of love gone sour. According to the story, the suspect, Williams was said to have strangled Njideka Lizzy Nzewe, 39, a mother of four, to death in her private home, at Green Estate, Amuwo Odofin, Festac, Lagos State and made away with her $50,000, phones, N8 million meant for running of the business and her Range Rover SUV Jeep. The woman was found on the floor of her apartment. The twine which was used to strangulate her was left hanging on her neck. It was also discovered that in the course of struggling with her assailant, to remove the rope, she urinated and defecated on her body. There were white foams on her mouth. Preliminary investigations revealed that Williams and Lizzy had been having affairs for several years, to the extent that the suspect who also works with Edmark, although younger than her, proposed marriage. Lizzy turned down the marriage proposal on the grounds that he was too young for her. “I heard that ACP Dan Okoro (Area ‘E’ Commander) and his men believed that the suspect is a serial killer, especially in view of the fact that he could just coldheartedly kill his lover. He had known this woman and her family for years. Members of her family and household know him and we also heard that he was quite close to her kids. Our Commander has ordered a manhunt for the fleeing suspect and I’m sure he will be apprehended very soon,” a Police source said. Police spokesperson, Ngozi Braide, said that the deceased was a single mother and was supposed to travel to USA on July, 24 on vacation with her kids. She planned to move into her just-completed building at Satellite Town, Lagos before embarking on the journey. She told one of her brothers to meet her early on July 19, to assist her move into the new apartment. “She had already made these plans, when Kelechi came in from Ghana to see her. His visit was not unusual because he used to come and go in as he likes in her home. We see them as couple because they are together most times,” said a source. The source added: “The truth of the matter was that her business has grown and she employed Kelechi to manage the Ghana and West coast branch of her company. Whenever he is in Nigeria, he moves goods to Ghana and distribute them to the west coast. Whenever he comes to Nigeria, he stays with madam at her private apartment”. On the day the incident happened, he had simply cruised to the gate and told the unsuspecting security guard that he was going to cash money from ATM. He drove out with the woman’s Range Rover Jeep and never came back. In the morning, Lizzy’s brother, who was supposed to assist her to move her things to her new home, came over after repeated calls to her phone which were not picked. He alerted the police at Festac Police Station. The suspect, Kelechi William, was arrested at the border between Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire by operatives from the Area ‘E’ Command, Festac Town and those of International Police, INTERPOL, while fleeing with the deceased’s Range Rover Sports Utility Vehicle, SUV, with number plate LAGOS EKY 509 AZ. Williams confessed that he did it out of jealousy. He said, “Lizzy was my girlfriend. I knew her three years ago. But we started getting serious in February this year. I came back from Ghana to visit her on July 16, 2014 which was on a Wednesday. The next day we went out and came back late. “On Friday, she told me to stay back at home and rest because I was tired. She left the house, saying she was going to the new apartment she was to pack into, assuring me she would be back as usual by 6 p.m. “But she did not return by 6 p.m. Rather, the gateman came with a power generating set, saying madam had gone to drop the workers. When it was 8 p.m. and I did not see her, I started calling her on phone but she did not pick. I called her up to 30 times without response. She came back by midnight and when I asked why she did not pick my calls, she said the phone was in silent mode. “I brought out my phone and called her line only for it to ring. At that point, I noticed she was drunk. I got angry and asked if that was the way she would pay me back for leaving everything in Ghana to come and spend time with her. I threatened to quit the relationship. But at that point, her phone rang and I told her to pick it but she insisted that I should pick it, and when I did, the caller, who was a male, asked, ‘baby are you home?’. “In anger, I took the phone and smashed it on the ground. Before I knew it, she threw my things outside, saying I should leave her house. I told her to give me the N300, 000 she borrowed from me to buy an air conditioner, if she wanted me to leave but she said she had no money and gave me her ATM card which she said had just N140,000. “At a point, she slapped me and we started fighting. She held on to my manhood and started stretching it. That was when I held the wrapper that was around her neck and used it to strangle her, thus forcing her to let go my manhood. She fell down and became motionless. “Immediately, I took her three phones, ATM card and went outside to meet the gate man to see me off to any ATM machine, where I withdrew N100, 000. I dropped the gateman at home, and told him I was going to pump the tyre. At that point, I knew I was in trouble. I did not go back to her house for fear of being arrested. “I drove straight to Mile Two, from where I picked a driver who drove me down to Ghana. I spent some days in Ghana before I decided to leave for Cote d’Ivoire, where, unfortunately, I was arrested. “I never wanted to kill her. I have never fought in my life, let alone kill somebody. I did not also steal her jewellery and N8 million as claimed by the Police. The only money I withdrew was N100, 000 and her phone.” John Tungwim, the security man to the deceased, recalled that he did not suspect Williams but went with him to withdraw from ATM. He said, “He told me he was going to the club with madam but that she asked him to go and withdraw money with her ATM card first. I went with him because I know madam’s pin code. When we came back, he told me to go inside that madam said she was tired and could not go. So, he drove out alone. I never suspected anything until the next day when I did not see madam. I called one of the children’s attention to it. Out of curiosity, I climbed a ladder only to discover that madam was on the floor foaming in her mouth. I contacted her brother who called in the police.” The Lagos State Police Commissioner, Umar Tanko, said that after the suspect killed the woman, he took the SUV he stole from her to his church in Ghana where he had a thanksgiving for his new car and also made a huge donation to the church to thank God. He spoke further that on the day of the murder, the suspect locked the door from outside, apparently to make it look as if they had gone out. He further disclosed that a new International Passport which bore the suspect’s name and the surname of his deceased’s lover was found on him, suggesting that the murder was planned. In September, 2011 the chairman of Kavex Computers and Communications Limited, Kazeem Ademoye, was murdered by Ngozi Funmi Ademoye, his wife of 13 years and mother of his three children. She said that she was shocked when she discovered that her husband was into occultism. With that discovery, she began her journey to a prophet’s house at Ikorodu, Lagos. The prophet purportedly told her that he sensed a dark presence around her that was sucking all her riches. After prayers, she left with a candle and holy water. On the day, she lit a candle in the middle of the house and sprinkled the holy water around the house before she proceeded to the room where the charms were kept. In the room, she said she found a pot, a bird in a cage, a live tortoise as well as some cowries. She claimed that also in the room was another pot with some feathers and currency notes from N50, N100 and N1, 000 tied with a red cloth fastened around it and a list of names. She also claimed that she saw her name and that of some of her husband’s brothers there. While saying her prayers, Ngozi claimed the cowries and the bird in the cage suddenly disappeared. She said it was then she remembered that Kazeem often used the room on Tuesdays and Thursdays, claiming he wanted to use the internet and that nobody should disturb him. It was one of such Thursdays that Ngozi claimed she did the clean-up which culminated in a fight. During the fight she was said to have hit him with the UPS and he slumped. However, she said that did not make the deceased to relent in the fight and she was forced to strangle him. She claimed that the strangulation was to make him unconscious and not to kill him outright. She was said to have gone to the man’s office to pack all the money sold for the day. She also told the office staff to tender their resignation as the deceased had relocated to Ghana and so would not be coming back. Rebuffing such claims that she killed the husband over money, Ngozi said she only collected N14, 000 from the accountant to buy things for the house as it suddenly dawned on her that she had become the man of the house. She claimed that after that, she went to withdraw N500, 000 from her own account as she needed the money for mortuary payment, embalming and other expenses that could crop up for the burial of her husband. The only daughter of General Frank Osokogu (rtd), Cynthia Osokogu’s, body was discovered in a Lagos morgue a month after she was declared missing on July 22, 2012. She was murdered by her Facebook acquaintances and supposed lover. Investigation into the murder revealed that Cynthia was strangled to death in the hotel by her assailants, who thereafter left with an undisclosed amount, her student identity card and phones. One of the suspects, Eloka, said they killed Cynthia because they thought she had a lot of money in her possession. But after the dastardly act, they did not find a reasonable amount of money on her. According to the suspect, “we met her on facebook and our BlackBerry. We invited her to come to Lagos to buy goods at cheap prices. “When she got to Lagos, we took her to a hotel in Festac, Lagos. We thought she had a lot of money, but she said she didn’t have any money. We gave her Reflon tablet in her Ribena drink. After this, we slept with her for 12 hours in that hotel. We discovered that the tablet did not work quickly on her. “We then attacked her, tied her up and used cello tape to cover her mouth. After that, we beat her to tell us where she kept the money. “When we didn’t get any money from her, we tied her mouth and strangled her and then we abandoned her in the hotel and fled.” According to reports, these two young men that committed the dastardly act are university students who confessed that they killed Cynthia and she is their sixth victim – the gang reportedly specialises in luring unsuspecting young women, robbing them of their possessions before killing them. On Friday, June 24, 2011, Akolade Arowolo , a 31-year- old self-acclaimed youth pastor stabbed his wife, Titilayo Omozoje, a banker, at their residence, at Isolo, Lagos, to death in the most gruesome manner after a fight. Justice Lateefa Okunnu of a Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja, sentenced Akolade to death by hanging on Friday, February 21, 2014 having found him guilty of a murder charge pressed against him. According to a forensic pathologist, 79 stab wounds were found on her. Early this year, for allegedly spending more time with his first wife in Kaduna, Mohammed Ibrahim Matazu, a Senior Legislative Adviser to Senator Mohammed Saleh, representing Kaduna Central Senatorial zone, ran into trouble with his second wife. The second wife allegedly set him on fire, and Matazu died later in the hospital. The younger brother of the deceased, Engineer Magaji Ibrahim, said the woman allegedly committed the crime when the deceased was about setting out for a journey to Kaduna for an official assignment. The woman’s action was intended to stop the trip to Kaduna where his first wife is based. In his reaction to the legal viewpoint of homicide in the country, Barrister Olurin Oyewole, of Oyewole and Co., Lagos commented thus, “What makes homicide unique are, among other crimes, the uniqueness of causing personal injuries and destruction of property are irreversible harms, causing death is a harm of different order. Killing another human being is not only a worldly deprivation, in the western assault on the sacred natural order. “Though, we are inclined to think of homicide as merely the deprivation of secular interest, the historical background of desecration is essential to an adequate understanding. For example, consent is not a defence to homicide and destruction of property. The reason being that the religion conception of human life still prevails against the modern view that life is an interest that the bearer can dispose at will. “In the theory of subjective criminality, the starting point is the actor’s intent to violate a protected legal interest. In the law of homicide, the focal point is neither the act nor the intent, but the fact of death. “From this central point, the perspective is who can be held accountable, and in what way for the discretion of the human and divine realm. The question is never where to place the point of the legal compass, but how should the person being brought in to stand responsible for the death that has already occurred. “Crime has been defined as acts or omission which render the person doing the act or making the omission liable to punishment. It can also be defined as an act which is illegal or an illegal omission to act; there is legal obligation to act. Homicide is a heinous crime, which has been regarded as a grave offence from the earliest times,” he added. Speaking further he said, “It is often said that the cardinal principle of Criminal Law, especially as it affects homicide generally is the maxim… Actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea, meaning an act does not make a person legally guilty unless the mind is legally blameworthy; this principle is applicable in Nigeria. The concurrence of Actus reus and Mens rea in the proof of homicide is very important. “However, the proof of mens rea (intention) has become so technical over the years that though a person accused of an offence must have had a malicious or guilty mind. “At same time, the mind need not be malicious in the conventional sense. The crime homicide has become a thing of daily call in the Nigerian Courts, which calls for proper attention considering decided cases which shows the rigidity of the proof of homicide, which needs to be loosed, i.e. made less rigid. Once the act (actus reus) can be proven, this should be enough to convict the accused except in cases of defence of property and other defences available under lawful homicides. On the causative factors of homicide, Dr Yomi Akindele Oscar, Associate Prof in Health & Counselling Psychology at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun state attributed it to callousness, greed, moment of madness, drunkenness, ritual purposes, revenge, among others. He stressed that except one is a serial killer without emotions, most of those that committed homicides can be as an emotional response to anger or rage, fear or terror, frustration and confusion. “As a response, the brain becomes overwhelmed and disorganised and experiences the trauma as a “threat” and responds with fear and anger. As a result of the threat, the brain sends an emergency “all systems go” signal, which bypasses the cognitive part of the brain.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 03:26:42 +0000
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