The two mounds of fresh sand behind the three bedroom bungalow in Ogooluwa village, Akiode Ibogun, Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State is all that is left of a tragedy that has left residents trying to make sense of what happened.
The two heaps of bodies are lying side by side behind the house marking the graves of a husband and wife who died within hours of each other following a reported domestic fight, Saturday PUNCH says.
Our correspondent, who visited the neighbourhood on Thursday, observed that the house, next the Celestial Church of Christ, Iri Orun Parish owned by the couple, was unoccupied. The church was likewise silent and the stillness in the air of the environment was a signal to the tragedy that touched the neighbourhood recently.
But for villagers, the hush has not drowned the anguish of Monday, August 31, when Bidemi Odukoya, the Shepherd of Iri Orun Parish of the CCC, allegedly macheted his wife to death in a domestic quarrel at midnight before allegedly taking his own life.The event is said to have happened at 2am.
Odukoya, a father of three boys, was said to have ran away from the community after allegedly hitting his wife and proceeded for the Coker junction, Ifo part of the Lagos-Abeokuta Motorway, roughly 20 minutes drive away from Akiode community.
Later it was said that he jumped in front of a moving truck and was killed instantly. Both husband and wife were laid to rest next to their home Monday evening.
The tragedy is still unfathomable for the people of Akiode Ibogun especially as the couple had resided in the village for roughly nine or 10 years and were typically considered as pleasant and courteous.
The Baale of the community, Chief Taiwo Akiode, said the incident has plunged the locals into great sadness.
“This unfortunate incident is the first of its kind in this milieu. It is a disaster of epic proportions that no one saw coming. It is something you find only in Nollywood films, the one we see on television. Nobody believes that such a horrible occurrence can happen in our backyard.
It is much more perplexing and quite scary with the kind of characters involved, I mean the Shepherd and his wife. They were both quite humorous and respectful. They were incredibly responsible and would always wave at me happily as they passed by.
“They have been living with us for more than nine or 10 years now, you never hear that the couple are troublesome or quarrelsome.
“So I find it hard to believe that it is the same set of people that could be involved in such a brutal domestic fight that claimed their souls in a very disturbing manner, leaving everyone behind to wallow in wild bewilderment.”
Akiode added that other people had came at his door about 3am to alert him that the Shepherd had allegedly killed his wife, speaking on how he got to know of the incident.
He stated the residents had told the police first and were later asked to tell him.
“I was told that the Shepherd had killed his wife, that he macheted her,” Akiode said. I couldn’t believe my ears until we drove to their home and saw the woman in a pool of her blood.
“There was a wound that appeared like a machete cut and there was also a stool which we also heard that the man used to smash his wife’s head.
Police arrived later and took photographs of the situation. All this time the Shepherd was nowhere in sight. He had taken to his heels, the idea was, having come to the realisation of the gravity of his dreadful conduct.
Another information filtered in about 7am that the community leader had allegedly jumped in front of a moving truck at Ifo along the Lagos-Abeokuta Motorway, he claimed.
We then sent several of the residents to check the report and they did. “Then the police at Ifo came in and took it up from there,” he claimed.
Akiode said other locals in Ifo said Odukoya had been crossing the motorway frequently before sitting on the median.
Some persons at Ifo said that the dead was crossing the motorway repeatedly back and forth when he arrived to the motorway. Later he sat on the barrier and then noticed an oncoming truck and jumped in front of it and died.”
Akiode said the woman was buried at 5 pm, while the husband’s remains were returned to the village later in the evening.
“The corpse of the husband was brought back to the community very late, maybe because of documentation and other things. He was buried beside his wife past seven in the evening,” he said.
“The community has not yet recovered from the incident,” the Baale stated.
‘They are the things we hear on the radio, that a man killed his wife or a wife stabbed her husband to death. We never believed anything like that would happen in our neighbourhood.
“So it came on so suddenly that the horror rang through the community, and we all kept asking ourselves what had gone wrong.”
“Only then did I hear claims that the couple fought often,” Akiode told The Associated Press.
“People were saying that the couple like fighting but I never heard that kind of thing before, like I said earlier, it is after their death.
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“These guys were pretty cool. They will even think they were brothers. “They’re a picture of a loving couple that I never in my wildest imagination would have thought could create all this anguish.”
The episode should make couples more tolerant and patient in resolving marital issues, the community leader added.
“It’s worrying that this could be between husband and wife. It requires a lot of sober consideration. We should recognise that even if we fight as partners it should not be to the level that life will be lost.
“We must see each other as partners and base our relationship on true love. If we are having problems with our marriage we should not wait till things get worse. “We should seek help and counselling before it gets out of hand.”
Community youth leader, Seun Adelana, speaking to journalists, suggested that the problem that took the life of the couple was rooted in infidelity.
He stated, “The major reason responsible for this sad event was said to be allegations of infidelity from both the husband and the wife.
Also, many said the shepherd was dating another woman. It was said that the husband was accusing that the wife was dating another man. “So this is what we gathered that led to the altercation that made the husband kill the woman,” Adelana said.
However, a neighbour of the late couple, Mrs Oluwatoyin Oseni, provided a different story about their connection.
Oseni, who was almost in tears, said the pair had often fought at home and that the late woman was supposedly hurt in several of the bouts.
Yours sincerely, Mummy Daniel and her spouse with whom we lovingly called Iri Orun have always been fighters at home. Recently had to help look after the wife following the typical fight.
There was even police involvement and we felt we had cleared up the confusion. “It was after the tragedy of Monday, August 31, that we got to know that husband and wife had reportedly not been on speaking terms since June as a fallout of their regular squabble,” Oseni stated.
Daniel, the couple’s first child, 14, woke her up at about 2am when he learned his father had attacked his mother and she and another neighbour ran to the couple’s home, she said.
“By the time I and another neighbour got to the house of the couple, we saw the lifeless body of Mummy Daniel with a broken head, all covered in blood, on the floor.
Later we heard that the Shepherd cracked the head of his wife with a machete and wooden stool. We also observed Daddy Daniel with a cutlass in the hands.
“I asked him why he would go to the extent of killing his wife and he calmly said that he too was as good as gone. “But he was holding the cutlass so we could not go closer,” she said.
Odukoya later walked inside the house, but the neighbours were not aware that he had left the neighbourhood, Oseni claimed.
We never knew that he escaped that midnight from the community to go and murder himself at Ifo along Lagos-Abeokuta Motorway. He later went inside the house’, she added.
The neighbour bemoaned the tragedy, more so as she had recommended the deceased woman several times to seek peace in her marriage.
She responded, “Here no one knows what a great calamity may befall us. These are what we see on television or hear on radio. No one ever dreamed this would happen in our community.”
“I have been weeping especially since this incident happened because I have always told Mummy Daniel to try and be patient and give peace a chance because I am always troubled by the couple’s persistent fight.
“But she would say to me that she can’t leave her children behind, especially the last born who is seven years old. But unfortunately, everything has ended in this dreadful and painful way.
Chief Oluwasegun Adeboye, the Asiwaju of Ibogun Akiode, also expressed regret over the deaths.
“It is hard for the community to believe that the Shepherd and his wife could be involved in such a tragedy,” said the 76-year-old community leader. “They were seen as peaceful people who related well with others.
Residents didn’t hear more about the couple’s apparent marital issues until after the tragedy, he said.
After the catastrophe we started hearing they were prone to frequent fighting and all that.
“We heard they have gone to court and they were asked to go home and see if they can resolve their differences amicably and come back to court for the next step.”
“We heard they were supposed to go back to court again on Wednesday, but everything finished on Monday, two days earlier,” he said.
Some neighbours blamed spiritual forces for the disaster, the community leader added.
“Some of us also think that what happened might not be unconnected with some diabolical powers; it is beyond the ordinary. He added: “We only pray that the devil will not get a foothold in our homes.”
When reached for comment, the Deputy Police Public Relations Officer of the state command, ASP Opeyemi Oluborode, said the police was already investigating the matter.
He said: “The Command is very much aware of the case. “The case file is being transferred to SCID for diligent investigation into knowing the actual facts surrounding the sad incidents”.
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