The first and only surviving child of the family, Bolatito Bewaji, told PUNCH Metro on Tuesday that Lekan killed her sister due to jealousy and uncertainty.
She said the problem started when Ronke discovered that her husband had a child outside matrimony,
which affected their marriage.
She said the problem started when Ronke discovered that her husband had a child outside matrimony,
which affected their marriage.
Bolatito said her sister had endured
a long period of domestic abuse, adding that sometime in December 2015, she
almost packed out of his house.
Lekan, a dockworker in the Apapa area
of Lagos State, allegedly killed Ronke, his wife of eight years, at their home
in the Idimu-Egbeda area last Thursday. The matter was reported at the Idimu
Police Division.
Lekan, who spoke to Punch while in
hiding, had claimed that his late wife was unfaithful to him, adding that he
caught her discussing her sexual escapades with a lover on the telephone.
On Monday, the 51-year-old Abeokuta,
Ogun State indigene, submitted himself to the police.
Bolatito, who spoke at the family
house on Ogunsiji Close, Allen Avenue, Ikeja, however, said her sister would
not have died if she had listened when she (Bolatito) and their mother begged
her to leave the house after a series of abuse.
She said:
“The first case of abuse which I can remember
happened sometime in 2012. The most recent was in December 2015, when we were
still mourning the death of my brother. My mother was in the house with them
when he started to verbally assault her. It was getting heated and my mum had
to immediately leave the house. My mum called me and I went to a police station
closest to the house. The policemen there said I could not report the case
since I was not the victim.”
She said she went to her sister’s
house, but her husband refused to let her go, which created a scene on their
street.
“My mother said I must make sure she packed her
belongings. I started begging her to follow me, and she stood up and went ahead
of me. But as I stepped out, I discovered that she had gone back. When I
returned to their house, I found her in bed.
“I called her and said, ‘my sister, do you want to die? We
don’t want to lose you. We just lost our second born. I know you are a loving
person and you care about your family, but you have to quit this marriage.’ At
this point, she (Ronke) started crying,” Bolatito added
It was learnt that a pastor on the
street and the landlady of the house came out to interfere and beg on behalf of
Lekan, who was also pleading and saying it was the devil’s handiwork
Bolatito said her mother insisted she
followed them back or she signed an undertaking at a police station that
whatever happened to her, the family would not be involved.
She said her sister’s latest problem
started after a woman turned up in their home with a child.
She clarified that Lekan, who was
caught unawares by the visit, started begging his wife for forgiveness.
Bolatito said:
“My sister called me and said her husband had a
child outside wedlock. She said somebody brought the child to the house and
said her husband was the father. She was shattered by that news and from that
time, she started keeping to herself.
“Lekan asked her to forgive him, saying it was the devil’s
handiwork. He would kneel and beg in the kitchen and bathroom. He promised to
do a DNA test to know if the child was truly his own, but he didn’t do it. He
started sending people to beg her. But she decided to stop talking to him.”
On the infidelity accusation,
Bolatito said her sister never had any relationship out of wedlock, saying the
relationship between Ronke and the manager in question was professional.
She also said Lekan did not buy her
two cars as he claimed.
“She has been struggling to raise N70,000 to change the
gearbox of her car. My sister would sometimes ask me for money for her
children’s school fees and other things, but he (Lekan) would check her account
and ask who sent the money and they would start fighting over it.
“Since we lost our brother, the two of us became close and
we promised to stay together to take care of our mum. But now, see what he has
done to our family,” she added.
Another family member, who asked not
to be named, said when Ronke refused to take any action on the child born out
of wedlock, her husband checked her phones to know if she was dating another
person in retaliation.
He said aside from the general
manager that the suspect mentioned, he had accused her of dating at least three
other people in her office.
He said
“He would pick her phone and would query her on numbers
not in her contact, he would ask who it was and why he was calling. Before she
got her job, whenever she was going for an interview, he would commission a
motorcyclist to trail her and check if she actually went for the interview or
not.
“If she told him she was going to see a friend, she would
call that friend some minutes later and said he could not reach his wife on her
mobile phone and would like to talk to her through the friend’s phone; just to
check if she was there.
“At another time, he started waiting for her at the gate
at night to see who would drop her at the gate.
“It got to a point that he sent friendship request to all
her male friends on Facebook and got their contacts and started calling them
and harassing them. The man is insecure and jealous.”
The family member described the late
Ronke as a loving woman who cared for her family and died because she refused
to leave her family.
He said:
“Ronke was a loving person. The only thing that
mattered to her was her family and her children. Even when things were bad, she
would call her sister to borrow money to pay rent or pay the children’s school
fees.”
Meanwhile, Punch says they gathered
that the family were already making plans to bury the 36-year-old, as the
police await the result of the autopsy.
The police
spokesperson, SP Dolapo Badmos, said investigations continuing.
Sourec: Madailygist
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