By Godwin Edeh
A 21-year-old woman has set her boyfriend ablaze in the early hours of Monday in Makurdi, the Benue State capital.
The Voice gathered that the incident occurred at No. 17 Yandev Street, Wadata, Makurdi as Esther Alex from Olachagbaha, Otukpa in Ogbadibo Local Government Area of Benue State at about 2:00 am on the fateful day stormed the residence of her deceased boyfriend, a one room apartment, sprinkled petrol and then set the room ablaze.
Investigations revealed that, trouble started when the deceased, Chidinma Omah from Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State, started foot dragging about marrying Esther which did not go down well with her.
From that time, the relationship became strained, resulting to frequent fisticuffs and later escalated to the level the lady threatened to kill him if he reneged to marry her.
Esther is said to had vowed to deal with the deceased Onah, each time they have misunderstanding and up to threatening to hiring the services of assasins to kill her boyfriend (now deceased) but was spared due to his kind heartedness.
Still undeterred, the lady was said to at a time poisoned his food but as luck will have it, Omah refused to eat the food but gave it to a dog who ate it and later died.
To worsen the matter, Omah also known in the area as Doc-k and operates a patent medicine shop was said to have gone to his village last December and performed traditional marriage ceremony of his proposed wife which further aggravated the already exiting tension between him and his girlfriend Esther.
When The Voice sought to know why the deceased refused to marry her after several years of courtship, sources alleged that Esther is not stable and had undergone several abortions, therefore, Omah did not want her as his wife, with the deceased insisting before his death that they were just friends and not in any marriage relationship.
Neighbours who don’t want to be mentioned in print told The Voice that the deceased was severely burnt before any help could reach him.
According to one of them, “we woke up at about 2:00am as a result of the loud cry from the deceased and saw his room in flames.”
He was immediately rushed to the Federal Medical Centre, Makurdi but could not survive, due to the degree of burns he sustained.
As at the time of filing this report, the Late Omah’s younger sister, Loveth came to the house to collect the remnants of his valuables.
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Catherine Anene confirmed the incident and said the suspect, Esther Alex has been arrested and she is currently in police custody.
