Boy, Three, Testifies Against Murder Suspect Mum Before Police Investigators

The three-year-old son of Folashade Bashira Idoko, who allegedly murdered her husband, Mr. Lawrence Idoko at Ayetoro-Ijanikin, Lagos on Sunday 20th August has testified against his detained mother at the Panti State Criminal Investigative Department in Lagos.

The late Lawrence Idoko was allegedly stabbed by his wife while asleep at their Ijanikin home and the incident has kept families and friends mourning.

Folashade who was after the attack apprehended and detained at the Ijanikin Police Station was on Tuesday transferred to Panti, Yaba, Lagos where she is currently being interrogated while her Ijanikin apartment and crime scene is still under lock by Police order.

Her Three-year-old told investigators how his mother committed the crime.

When asked how it happened, the minor said, “My mummy chuck (stabbed) my daddy knife and my daddy died.”

The incidence apparently still fresh in his memory was relayed to three different investigators at different intervals at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) on Thursday.

The little boy and his 11-month-old younger sister are currently in the custody of their father’s relatives in Lagos.

The young testifier who is used to sometimes seeing his engineer father at home after days on the site may still be expecting him back home as he was also heard saying “My Daddy went to work.”

Retired Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Paul Ahmed, an uncle of the deceased was among the relatives at the SCID to follow up with the investigation.

Ahmed, a former DPO at Mushin Police Station in Lagos was on hand to meet the suspect and her family members. Main reason for his visit was to see to the necessary arrangement for releasing the corpse for burial and fast tracking family arrangements necessary in caring for the two young children of the deceased.

One Mr. Adeyemi is a relative of the suspect, expressed shock at the incidence. “We are all surprised at the unfortunate situation,” he said, adding that, “I was the one who brought her to Lagos after her secondary education and I never expected this will ever happen.’

With the little boy’s testimony, Folashade Idoko may be walking a tight rope while investigation continues. She is billed to be taken to the house for murder scene inspection as part of the murder investigation.

Landlord of the deceased and a community leader in Ijanikin, Lagos, Chief Gani Akanni, also earlier testified that the couple never lived in peace.

“There are seven days in a week, these people fought three of the seven days,” he said. The community leader (Balogun of Ayetoro) relayed how he once issued the couple a quit notice.

“I had given them a quit notice before but the neighbors pleaded and I had to reconsider because the deceased was a nice tenant. I knew things are hard and it would be difficult for him to raise money for another rent,” he said.

In her comment, Stella Idoko, a Business Admin student of the Benue State Polytechnic, Ugbokolo and younger sister to the deceased, who had lived with the couple until February 2017, told National Wire that the suspect had lived at loggerheads with her brother while she lived with them.

She recalled the series of violence meted on her brother by the suspect. “I was with them in November 2016, when he wounded him in my presence,” she said, adding that,
“He had just returned from work then and an argument ensued over a telephone call in which she deemed ‘suspicious’. He left the house so that tensions would douse. While my brother was outside, she ensued nobody, including the children, stayed outside the house. When my brother eventually returned later at night, she immediately lunged at him and started a fight. I thought that was over. In the dead of night, I heard a big noise in the bedroom. ‘You will kill me this night or I will kill you’ she said, brandishing a kitchen knife, I pleaded with her to stop, in the process, she wounded me. When my wrist started bleeding, she calmed down.”

“My brother begged that I shouldn’t let our parents know what transpired.”

“Also, on January 1st, on our way back from the Cross Over Night service, he received an SMS from a lady wishing him Happy New Year, and even asking after his family. That brew a very big quarrel all the way from the church and to the house. She called the lady and rained abuses on her. All these led to the landlord giving them quit notice,” she added.

According to her, “She would always make trouble for no just cause and it was a major concern before I left them. Even with all these, my brother always tried to satisfy her because he loved his family especially the little children,” she sobbed.

Meanwhile, the family and friends of the deceased are awaiting necessary documentation from the police that would facilitate the release of the corpse from the mortuary ahead of a befitting burial in Benue State.

Betty Abah, a maternal aunt of the deceased, and human rights activist, told National Wire that the family would pursue the course of justice “If for nothing but to make a statement that domestic violence, either against women or men, and such brutal murder, is not acceptable in a civilized society and must be punished.”

She also disclosed that the family were shielded from the entire violence while the ill-fated marriage lasted else they would have intervened somehow.

Domestic violence has claimed several lives in Nigeria in recent years while the police have continued to ask people involved in such violence to always report cases of spousal abuse before it is too late.