Borno housewife poisons chief imam, says I hate marriage

The Borno State Police Command said it arrested a housewife, Fatima Abubakar, 25, for allegedly killing her husband, Goni Abbah, with poison.

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr Abdu Umar, who disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria in Maiduguri, the state capital, said the suspect was arrested on October 19 at Anguwan Doki.

Umar said the victim, who was the Chief Imam of the area, had returned from a mosque when the suspect, who was his second wife, allegedly put poison in his food.

He explained that as soon as Abbah started eating, he began feeling uncomfortable.

According to him, the victim was immediately rushed to the State Specialist Hospital where he was given medical attention, but later died.

The police boss was said to have deployed men of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department to arrest the suspect after the incident was reported by the victim’s family at the GRA Police Station.

Umar said the police, on arrival at the scene, saw a large number of aggrieved youths in the neighbourhood, who stormed the home of the victim with the intention of lynching the suspect.

He said the police, however, brought the situation under control.

The police commissioner noted that the suspect, in her statement, confessed to the crime, saying she bought the poison from the market after she made up her mind to kill her husband.

He said the case had been registered as culpable homicide before the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions before she would be charged.

The suspect, Abubakar, who was paraded at the command headquarters, told NAN that she killed her husband because she was tired of the marriage.

She said, “I never wanted the marriage. Goni was my second husband; I got separated from my first husband because I hate marriage.

“Anytime I wake up with the fact that I am married, it pisses me off. At some point, I had to run to my parents to demand an end to the marriage, but they always sent me back, asking me to be patient.

“At some point, two months after I gave birth to my child, I ran away and slept in an uncompleted building for about two weeks. I later returned to my husband’s house.

“Not that he doesn’t treat me well; we are also not quarrelling. We are two in the household, I am his second wife and I have been married to him since 2021. But I just hate when any man comes near me.

“I don’t really know what is wrong with me. Even now that I am speaking to you, I don’t really feel that I was the one who killed him.”

(Punch)