The police in Ogun State have arrested a 32-year-old businessman, Ezekiel Igbokwe, for allegedly killing his wife’s lover, Victor Olatundun.
Igbokwe reportedly killed Olatundun after he caught him having sex with his wife in their matrimonial home.
Police say he committed the crime on July 27, at Peace Lodge on Itura Street, Awa Ijebu, Ijebu-North Local Government Area of Ogun State.
Igbokwe and his 28-year-old wife were among the 23 suspects paraded at the Ogun State Police Command headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta last week, for various offences ranging from murder to illegal possession of firearms.
The suspect said he returned from a trip to Onitsha and met his wife and Victor amorously interlocked on their matrimonial bed.
There and then, according to him, he picked a cutlass in the toilet and cut Victor in the neck and hand.
Ezekiel Igbokwe and his wife, Juliet
He reportedly died on the way to the hospital.
Igbokwe, who deals in electronics, said he was born in Ago Iwoye, Ogun State.
He said: “I travelled to Onitsha on July 25, and when I came back on July 27, I met a man inside my room having sex with to my wife. Then we started fighting. The man was stronger than me. When I saw he could overpower me and beat me despite sleeping with my wife, I went for a cutlass in my toilet and dealt him blows in the hand and neck. On the way to the hospital, the fuel in the car finished and he died.”
Igbokwe said he hit Victor out of anger, adding that he did not mean to kill him.
He claimed that he had never met Olatundun before, saying he also never suspected that his wife was having an extra-marital affair with anyone.
Igbokwe and his wife Juliet have three children aged nine, seven and five years.
Juliet, who sobbed intermittently, said her alleged lover had been pressuring her for a relationship for some time.
She explained that she had always told him she was married, but the victim never gave up until he ended up at their matrimonial home on that night.
Juliet, a dealer in snuff, said Victor was her supplier and he pestered her for six months before she finally gave in.
She said she suspected that the deceased used charm on her, as she could not explain how it all happened.
She said: “He had been disturbing me that he wanted to marry me, but I told him I am already married.
“He used to come and deliver snuff to me in the house. On the day of the incident, he told me he was coming from somewhere and that it was already late. He wanted to sleep in our place till the next day. He didn’t know that my husband was away. He tried to sleep with me, but later he didn’t.”
Juliet, who said she got married to her husband in 2005, claimed that her husband does not take care of her and their children.
She said their marriage had been turbulent and fraught with fights and quarrels. The mother of three said each time they had a fight, her husband would leave the house for months.