Juliana Francis
A housewife, simply identified as Felicia, has narrated how her husband, Lateef attempted to kill her.
The woman said that she got married in 2000 and had her first child in 2003. They had three children in all, with the last just 10 months old.
She said: “I noticed my husband’s attitude changed but couldn’t understand him. We operated a joined business of building materials where we sell cement, blocks, and granites with my bulk money. My husband squandered money and I couldn’t challenge him, he usually claimed there was no money and wouldn’t know how to account for the money even after making huge sales of materials. He doesn’t cater to our children and all his responsibilities were left for me to be done.”
She further alleged on the 19th of January, she was kidnapped in their apartment and that her husband was instrumental in her abduction.
She said: “He opened the door for the kidnappers, later claiming that he wanted to put on the generator when we have a good and powerful inverter which carries all our electronics and gadgets. I asked him not to open the door, but he refused, immediately he opened the door, and the kidnappers came in and kidnapped me. My husband that opened the door was left alone. While taking me out, the kidnappers shot dead the man that saw them, while another man who asked where they were taking me to was also shot but didn’t die.”
Felicia said that she was taken into the bush where she was held captive for five days, while the kidnappers waited for the N20 million ransom they had demanded.
She narrated: “I had to borrow money all round to get myself freed. On the 2nd of July 2022, my husband moved out of the house without informing me. It was people in the neighbourhood that hinted to me that he had built two houses, one in Agbowa and the other at Iraye after Agbowa. I got to know where he built the houses and traced him there when he came to the site. On getting there with my child, he was astonished and shocked. The two women he came with left, while my husband pounced on me to beat me up, asking how I got to know about the houses he built after I challenged him.”
She further recalled: “He beat me up and sat on me. He said that since I came to the site, he will kill and bury me in the bush. I had to tell my child to go to the nearest police station to call the police. When the policemen came, they met him, on top of me and punching me. He was arrested and taken to Agbowa-Imota Police Station, where he was detained for interrogation. The Divisional Police Officer (IPO) asked him about his involvement in my kidnap, he replied that he opened the door for the kidnappers who came to kidnap me. The DPO investigated and then transferred the case to the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCIID), Panti, Yaba.”
Felicia, who said that she was seeking justice, ran to Advocates for Children and Vulnerable Persons Network (ACVPN).
She added: “My husband set me up after he had stolen my business money. He’s ready to kill me if the needful is not done. I have been asked by his family to settle the matter out of the police station, but I want to go to court because my husband will kill me if the matter is not charged to court. He also claimed to have built only one house instead of two. He built the two houses with my money and then sent kidnappers to kidnap me at home, while I borrowed N20m to pay for my ransom. Everything was organised by him. He also needs to name other accomplices.”
