A 45-year-old man simply identified as Mr Christopher on Saturday night beat his 39-year-old wife to death over N2,000.
The incident happened at No.1, Agbontaen Street, beside Ebvareke Secondary School, off Agboniro Street, Uselu, Benin City.
The man was said to have beaten up his wife, Mrs Isoken Christopher, a mother of three; following her failure to give him the N2, 000 loan he requested from her. The eldest child of the deceased, Augustine Christopher, noted that his mother was hale and hearty before the sad incident.
The 13-year-old boy explained that his father, who is a menial worker with a waste manager in Benin, always beat his mother at the slightest provocation.
According to him, the event that led to his mother’s death started with a phone call from his father; whom he said had called his mother to request for N2,000.
“Following the call, my father came home at about 9pm and started beating her…He accused her of always embarrassing him each time he requested for money.
“After the beating, I was trying to give my mother paracetamol and water she asked for; when my father took the water and drug from me and threw it away. It was after then she went out to pour water on her body and later lay down outside.
“My father locked us (children) inside the room and went out to pounce on my mother where she was lying down outside, already weak from the previous beating.
“That was when neighbours came and rushed her to two different hospitals…She was both pronounced dead on arrival,” he explained.
The young boy said that his father was a smoker and was always drunk.
Similarly, a neighbour to the deceased, Mrs Florence Obahiagbon, said it was the noise from the beating that brought them outside.
“On getting outside, we met the man beating his wife as usual…We tried to revive her by pouring water on her because she was weak by then. We rushed her to two hospitals within the neighbourhood where they both said she was dead on arrival.
“Thereafter, we invited vigilante that responded swiftly…They caught the deceased’s husband who was then trying to escape after committing the crime.’’
Mrs Obahiagbon said that the deceased was hale and hearty; adding that they had both attended the same party earlier in the day where she (deceased) participated in serving guests at the party. Also, she described the deceased as a hard working woman who operated a fashion shop in a caravan; which was located in front of their rented apartment where they occupied a room and parlour.
Obahiagbon said that the deceased’s corpse was taken away by the Police from the New Benin Station.
Meanwhile, the Spokesman of the State Police Command, SP Bello Kontongs, confirmed the report. However, he said the command had yet to get details of the incident from the Divisional Police Station in charge of the area.
