By Evelyn Usman
The shrill shout for help rented the quiet atmosphere in Ogombo village, Lekki, Eti-Osa Local Government Area of Lagos State, at the early hours of Tuesday, last week. Residents who were jolted from sleep felt reluctant at first to come out, apparently thinking it was a robbery attack.
Lover-killer suspect, Blessing Edet
When a man later discovered to be the landlord of the building where the shout emanated from summoned courage to go see what the problem was, he was reportedly taken aback, on seeing a young man in the pool of his blood, with a kitchen knife by the side of his ribs.
The dying man, Mr. Edet Ebong, a member of staff of the Akwa Ibom State Transport Company, was reportedly rushed to a hospital within the vicinity by policemen from Ogombo Division who were alerted by the landlord identified as Baba Dada. Unfortunately, he was reportedly rejected. Thereafter, he was rushed to the Marina General Hospital where doctors battled in vain to save his life.
As you read this piece, Ebong is lying stone dead at the hospital morgue, no thanks to his lover of 18 months. At the moment, his alleged killer, Miss Blessing Edet, is cooling her heels at the State Criminal and Investigations Department (SCIID), Yaba.
Crime Guard investigation revealed that the deceased moved into his girlfriend’s apartment six months ago after he was ejected from his. The relationship which had lasted for a year and six months was at its final stage of being consummated into marriage when the unexpected occurred. It was learned that the deceased returned home at about 11pm, without the slightest inkling that it would be his last night on earth.
A version of the account at Crime Guard’s disposal reveals that the quarrel between the love birds was as a result of Blessing’s refusal to add canned sardines in the noodles her live-in over asked her to prepare for him.
Account of eyewitnesses
A resident who claimed to have witnessed the quarrel said: “I was waiting outside for my boyfriend who was yet to come home when I saw Edet walk in. Thereafter, I overheard Blessing saying she could not go out that night to buy canned sardines to prepare the noodles.
At about an hour and thirty minutes later, my boyfriend arrived and as we were going into our apartment, I heard them shouting at the top of their voices, with Blessing threatening to stab Edet with a knife if he laid his hands on her. She apparently made good her threat soon after that.”
Another resident who was accosted by this reporter claimed she never knew the suspect as Blessing. Speaking sarcastically, the resident who simply gave her name as Funmi said: “When she moved in here four months ago, she said her name was Amaka, an Ibo lady. But we later discovered she was a commercial sex worker.
Later, she started seeing the man (deceased ) regularly and before we knew it, he had moved in with her. Three months ago, they had a quarrel, in the course of which Blessing flung her boyfriends cloths out and ordered him to leave her apartment. But we later saw him coming back again.
Had he remained where he went, this would not have happened. We discovered that she tried to manage the situation herself. Had she raised the alarm early, her boyfriend would not have died. He died as a result of so much loss of blood”, Funmi said.
Sex, cause of fight
In an encounter with the Akwa-Ibom State-born suspect, she was full of remorse, finding it difficult to accept she actually killed her lover. In an emotion-laden tone, she said: “I never meant to kill him. Of all the men I have come across, he appealed most to me. He came home that night drunk and requested that I prepared noodles for him. After eating and we laid down to sleep, he started making advances for sex.
I politely told him that I was tired. At a point, he wanted to have it by force but I stopped the move. He flared up and started beating me. He said he was free to have me any time he wanted because we were going to get married. Unable to control his emotion, he broke the standing mirror and used one of the broken pieces to stab me in the eye.
“At that point, I rushed into the kitchen and brought the knife I used to slice onion for the noodles. I only wanted to threaten him with it. But before I knew it, I mistakenly stabbed him in the stomach by the side of his left ribs. “Honestly, I did not know the knife pierced into his stomach because he kept chasing me around. He went under the bed and brought out a cutlass, threatening to cut off my neck.
My younger brother who lives with me did all he could to stop him. When he discovered he couldn’t, he rushed out and started calling for help. It was at this point I noticed that my lover was getting weak and fell down. On closer look, I discovered he was bleeding profusely. When my landlord came, he called in policemen from Ogombo Division.”
At this point, she stopped talking and held her head with her two hands and started pulling her hairs. Thereafter, she tilted back and forth and burst into tears. Asked why she was crying, she said amid tears, “I have neither a mother nor a father to cry to at the moment.
He filled that vacuum. He promised me while the going was good that our children would not be orphaned. I prayed like never before for his survival while he was in the hospital. The worst has happened and I am crying because I don’t know where I am going from here. I swear I stabbed him mistakenly,” she stressed , with an expression of guilt.
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