Nurse stabs engineer husband to death in Lagos

A Lagos-based engineer, Mr. Lawrence Ameh Idoko has been reportedly stabbed to death by his wife, an auxiliary nurse, Mrs. Folashade Bashira Idoko.

The incident which happened at about 11pm, August 20 at Kosoko Street in Ayetoro area of Lagos (Oto-Awori Local Government Area), was, according to neighbours, including the landlord of the house, a culmination of several years of violent spousal abuse by the suspect, Mrs. Idoko, against her husband.

The last fatal incident was said to have happened on Sunday night when 32 year -old Mr. Idoko who worked as a pipeline engineer with Greater Inspection and Industrial Services at Sango-Otta, Ogun State, was away for a week on an assignment at Ikorodu for his company. When he returned home, his wife accused him of being involved in an extra-marital affair and stabbed him in the leg with a sharp knife.

When his three-year old son’s cries alerted neighbours, he had bled heavily. He died about an hour after he was rushed to the nearby New Ayetoro Medical Centre, Ijanikin.

According to a neighbour, Mrs. Blessing Olokpobri, the wife’s violence was a well-known fact in the entire neighbourhood. “There was hardly a day they didn’t have a fight whenever he came around, even on January 1st this year.

“Or, was it when he went to drag him and stripped him naked from the beer palour around here where he was hanging out with friends? She even beat up an elderly neighbor who tried to intervene. There was even a time she sliced his ear lobes with a broken bottle and it had to be stitched. There was another day she striped him naked in the public, she narrated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The landlord, Chief Gani Akanni, the Balogun of Ayetoro-Ijanikin who took the bleeding and dying Idoko to the hospital, recounted how he gave the couple a quit notice early this year due to the incessant fight, but was begged by the other tenants into reconsidering his stance.

“There was a time I also took the woman to the police station because she vandalised my property after I locked up the tenants’ rooms for defaulting in payment of LAWMA (waste collection) bills.

“She went ahead to break the door. It is unfortunate because the husband is such a quiet and peaceful man. Lawrence would never raise his voice against anybody, he would rather apologise if there was any issue involving him.

“There are seven days in a week, this couple would fight three of those seven days. I am a peaceful person and a community leader. People bring matter to me in the neighbourhood and I settle them. I don’t like noise but the deceased’s wife would always cause embarrassment in the compound.

Folashade who is currently in detention at the Ijanikin Police Station, is said to be an auxiliary nurse by training but has been a house wife since. The couple have two children, a three-year old boy, Isaac and an 11-month old girl, Benedicta.

Idoko hailed from Benue while Folashade hails from Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State.

Mercy Yusuf is Folashade’s younger sister who joined the Idokos on her holidays. “I came a few days ago to spend part of my holidays with them so I could help out in some domestic chores,” said the 16 years old Mercy.

“I was fast asleep when she woke me up and ordered me to carry her little baby, I carried the baby and saw a pool of blood, I was afraid and that was when neighbours came and rushed her husband to the hospital,” she cried.

In another neighbour’s account, the incidence happened around midnight Sunday August 20^th. Mrs. Jovita Akinrun told National Wire that, “Yesterday evening around 12mid night I didn’t go to bed because I was waiting for my husband who went out. He came around midnight and I went to open the gate for him.

“That was when I heard someone groaning and calling ‘mummy Esther!’ I called my husband and we dragged him out. He was soaked in his own blood and looking at the wound and looking at his wife without uttering any word. I met the children also stained with blood.”

When asked if they had had violent encounters before the fateful day, Akinrun answered in the affirmative. “They fought regularly so people in the neighborhood don’t bother about them again. The little boy, Isaac was shouting my daddy my daddy. So unfortunate because the deceased was not the talking type. She had sliced his ear once and he did as if nothing happened. They had lived here for four years,” she said.

Kingsley Aloro is a friend and colleague of the deceased. According to him, they had been together for ten years ever before the couple go married. “We worked together for ten years. He was very jovial and friendly. We all loved him. He would never raise his voice against anyone and you would never find him frowning, he was always smiles,” Aloro said.

Another colleague and confidant of the deceased, Emmanuel Depav told National Wire how he and the deceased came to Lagos from their native Benue State to seek greener pasture. “Lawrence was my friend. We were at home together before we came to Lagos to work. We had worked together for years, he wasn’t a troublesome person,” he said.

Depav also narrated how difficult it was for anyone to know what transpired regularly between the Idokos. “He doesn’t tell anybody anything. It took me a lot of effort before getting information from him. He called me two years ago in December of that year how his wife broke a glass cup on his head after a little quarrel. She promised him it won’t happen again, but she never kept to her promise and today, so unfortunate I lost a dear friend and brother,” he sobbed.

Meanwhile, the suspect is in police custody at the Ijanikin Police Station pending when the case would be transferred to Panti. The corpse of the deceased has also deposited at the mortuary.