Man batters wife to death for infidelity

Allegation of infidelity has been known to be the commonest home breaker from time immemorial. But rather than break the home of the Omolades, the beast has claimed the life of one of the partners. How did mere allegation of infidelity degenerate to suspected murder?

It started sometime in July 2011. One Friday in that fateful month, Paul Omolade, 41, reportedly woke his wife, Omolere, in the middle of the night and confronted her with the allegation that she was having an affair with his friend. The couple live at No 14, Ifesowa Street, Ikorodu area of Lagos State and they are blessed with two girls and a boy.

But Omolere reportedly denied the charge and challenged her husband to name the source of the information and the place where she met with her said lover.

Paul, who was unmoved by his wife’s defence, reportedly stopped eating her food. He was also said to have abandoned their matrimonial bed. While this disagreement lasted, Omolere pleaded, albeit unsuccessfully with her husband. Paul reportedly insisted that his wife should pack her luggage and leave his house with their kids.

Earlier this year, when the matter became unbearable for Omolere, the Sagamu-born woman reported the matter to her in-laws for them to intervene. It was said that Paul’s relatives met on several occasions, in Ikorodu and Shagamu, but Paul declined their olive branch but stood his ground that his wife of 11 years should move out of his house. A typical African woman that Omolere was, she insisted that she would not leave her matrimonial home and abandon her children. With this stance, Paul was reported to seldom come home and when he did, he would keep a distance from his wife and children.

That had been the situation since the last time Paul’s family visited the couple at their Ikorodu home in May this year. However, on Monday, 22 October, 2012, something happened in the oneroom apartment home of the Omolades.

It was around 10:00 am when all occupants of the compound had left for their various places of work. Before this day, Paul was reported to have been away from home for two weeks. Eyewitnesses said that Paul returned home early that fateful morning drunk and looking fierce. Omolere, a trader, was reported to be getting ready to go to her shop having ensured that the kids were taken care of and sent to school. Once Paul entered the apartment, he reportedly engaged his wife in series of provocative questioning and asking her why she still remained in his house.

A heated argument then ensued between the feuding couple. Paul was reported to have traded a lot of heavy punches unto the entire body of the woman. Omolere’s cry for help did not yield any result as the entire compound was deserted at the time. When the punches would not cease, Omolere reportedly slumped.

It was at this stage that her husband reportedly left her off the hook. Apparently satisfied with his action, Paul changed his clothes, hoping that before he was done with that, Omolere would have got up from the floor and be ready to move her luggage out of the house.

But that was not to be. Just as Paul was reportedly wondering why his wife was still laying on the floor, a neighbour friend of Omolere, who had been hearing the noise from the room, rushed in to offer help. The woman reportedly met a cold Omolere on the floor.

The woman reportedly attempted to rush her friend to the hospital but before a vehicle could be arranged, the mother of three was dead. Apparently sensing trouble, Paul reportedly told the woman that he was going to get a doctor friend from a near-by hospital. Off he went and has not been seen until now.

Musikilu Adeotan sells engine oil on the same street the Omolades lived. He claimed that the fight between Paul and his wife was well known to everyone in the neighbourhood and that were the co-tenants of the Omolades were to be at home, they might have prevented Paul from entering the house he rented with his money because of the treatment he had subjected the woman to in recent times. In the words of Adeotan, “The late woman just suffered herself for nothing.

For months now, she had been having running battle with her husband over an alleged infidelity charge. On many occasions, people had called the man to counsel him on how best to treat such a case rather than beating his wife and starving her and their children. No one knew this would be how the whole thing would end,” Adeotan said. An elderly neighbour of the Omolades, who craved anonymity, told Saturday Mirror that the matter was reported at the Ikorodu Police Station but before law enforcement agents could arrive at the scene, Paul had taken to his heels. “I don’t’ know what went wrong with the man.

On many occasions, some of us elders in the area had called the two of them for reconciliation but the man would not want to listen to anyone. He insisted that his wife should leave his hose, but I never knew that this would be the end of the whole matter. On many occasions, the family of the woman had intervenient but the man was adamant until he eventually killed her,” he said. Ngozi Braide, spokesperson of the Lagos Police Command confirmed the incident and maintained that the suspect was at large. Braide claimed that law enforcement agents have launched a manhunt for the fleeing Paul and expressed optimism that he would be apprehended before long.