Slain banker’s hubby once threatened to throw wife from four-storey building

Leave a Comment

Mr. George Oyakhire, the father of Titilayo (Omozoje) Arowolo, a banker who was allegedly killed by her husband, Akolade, on Tuesday told a Lagos High Court that the accused had once threatened to kill the deceased.

Oyakhire also told the court that Titilayo had left Akolade’s house on various occasions because of domestic violence, adding that he beat her up after she was still nursing her baby.

He said, “In February 2011, I came to Lagos to visit my family and my daughter came to visit me from work.

“She told me Akolade had threatened to throw her from the balcony of their house at Isolo. I was shocked and asked her not to go back to his house.

“I later sent for Akolade and his parents and when he came, he told me he was joking with her but I told him not to come to my house again. Where the couple was staying is a four -storey building.

“The father (Mr. Arowolo) said Akolade was capable of such and that he did not like the idea of them staying in that apartment.”

He added that Akolade’s mother had said she was tired of the accused and that each time she tried to intervene, her son always accused her of taking sides with the deceased.

Oyakhire said, “I then told the parents that I wouldn’t want anybody to use my daughter’s blood to appease any god.

“By the end of April, Akolade started sending text messages pleading that he and my daughter had reconciled and I then told her to go back to Akolade’s house.

“She had stayed in my house from February to end of April 2011 and she returned to Akolade’s house in early May and died in June 24, 2011.”

Oyakhire told the court that he spoke to the deceased on the said date.

“I called Titilayo on the said date but she said, ‘Daddy warn Akolade, he has started again.’ That was the last time I spoke to her,” he said.

Another witness, Aidehi, the younger sister of the deceased, told the court that she spoke with the deceased on the day of the incident, adding that her voice was faint.

She said, “I tried her phone lines and she picked at first but her voice sounded very faint but because it was raining, I assumed it was the rain that affected the network.

“After the line cut, we kept on trying her phones and Folake, my sister, was able to get through to her but this time Akolade picked up the telephone.

“Akolade said he and the deceased had a little misunderstanding and it had been resolved. Folake asked to speak with the deceased but Akolade said we should give him two minutes but the line cut. That was the last time we spoke.”

Aidehi described in graphic detail, how the corpse of the deceased was found.

She said, “I went with my stepmother, Adetoun, to Akolade’s house at 8, Akindeinde Street, Isolo, on the morning of June 25, 2011 and on getting to the house, we saw Akolade’s family waiting outside.

“The door could not open and we couldn’t get a carpenter. So, Tunde, the accused person’s brother, climbed through the ceiling of the immediate neighbour’s flat.

“When he got in, he made a noise. I then climbed through the ceiling and came down into the kitchen and I walked into the bedroom where I saw her in a pool of blood.

“She had cuts on her knuckles and hands and had a hole in her chest. There was a white substance on the bed and a hammer beside a bed as well as a piece of flesh on the bed. Her eye was punctured and almost gouged out and a knife in her neck.”

Aidehi said there was blood all over the kitchen down to the living room and fingerprint of blood on the wall.

But Akolade’s lawyer, Olarewaju Ajanaku, however faulted Aidehi’s claims on the grounds that it was not included in her statement written at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Yaba.

The lawyer also said it was possible that the deceased could have died after an armed robbery attack since there was no witness to prove otherwise.

Another witness, Mr. Adewale Adeyemi, who lived in the same compound with the deceased, claimed that he saw Akolade covered in blood and driving out of the compound on the day of the incident.

“I saw Akolade and he had a deep cut on his hand and I tried to ask him what was wrong but he immediately drove out in his car,” Adeyemi said.

Justice Lateefat Okunnu adjourned the case till February 20, 2011.

Meanwhile, a mini-drama unfolded outside the court as Akolade tried to handover a birthday gift to the Oyakhire family to give to his daughter, Olamide, who will clock three years on Friday.

The family members immediately rejected the gift and asked Akolade to give it to his daughter directly if he was keen on giving her a gift.

A former neighbour of the deceased said Akolade should send the gift through Titilayo.

“Akolade should send the gift through deceased if he is eager to deliver the gift to his daughter,” he said

Drop Your Facebook Comments Here!!


0 comments:

Post a Comment