Man Kills Wife for Preparing Unapproved Soup

Nigeria: Man Kills Wife for Preparing Unapproved Soup

24 JULY 2012

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It sounds bizarre and strange, if not weird. For a man to shoot a wife, who had sired him six children, for the banal reason of not preparing his preferred delicacy, for which money was provided, sounds all curious. Perhaps there is more to it, than the shallow storyline which a former member of the Enugu Independent Electoral Commission (ENSIEC), Hon. Mathias Nweze, gave for shooting his wife.

The people of the sleepy town of Umuida Enugu Ezike in Igboeze North Local Government Area of Enugu State are still in shock following the murder of the middle-aged woman by her husband. The suspect reportedly murdered the deceased said to be one of his two wives.

The late Nweze hailed from Imufu in the same Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area as her husband.

But perhaps out of sheer gallantry or a desire to weave a somewhat credible story, the husband had rushed to the police station in the community to report himself for killing his wife.

Nweze, in his report to the police, claimed that while he was sleeping in his house at about 11 pm last Saturday, his generator went off twice arousing the suspicion that robbers might have invaded his compound.

He told the police that consequently, he brought his pump action gun and fired several times at the direction of the generator.

Nweze, who is said to be living with his two wives as at the time of the incident, said while trying to shoot whoever was out there in the compound, one of the bullets hit his wife, leaving her critically injured.

Nwaze is said to have married five wives at different times in the past. He had always divorced them, to remarry others. He had just the remaining two wives left with him, at the time of the shooting.

It was, however, uncertain if he is licensed to bear arms or not. And if he is licensed to bear arms, what category of guns, he could own.

Some residents of the town have continued to raise posers over the incident, wondering how good a marksman he is to have fired into a compound without seeing his target. They also wondered if the generator went off twice that night, who restarted it on the two occasions that it went off? Was the generator itself also hit by the roving bullets?

Many neighbours of the Nwezes believed the suspect must have made up the story to the police to lessen the weight of his crime.

Two neighbours who spoke to THISDAY on grounds of anonymity, narrated how the suspect had given money to the late wife to cook some delicacy for him but he was angered when he found out that rather than cook what he wanted, he was served something else which they identified as 'corn mill'.

He was said to have been deeply angered by the development and in the ensuing altercation between the couple, Mathias, whom they said could no longer contain his anger, rushed into his room, picked his gun, stormed out, aimed the gun at the wife, and pulled the trigger. The woman was said to have fallen down immediately, lying in the pool of her blood and writhing in pains.

She was later rushed to the New Testament Hospital, Ogurute Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area where she was confirmed dead by the doctor.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Ebere Amaraizu, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, confirmed the report, adding that the body of the deceased had been deposited at the mortuary for autopsy, just as the suspect has been detained by the police.

Amaraizu also noted that the police had commenced full scale investigation into the incident that led to the shooting of the mother of six.