Wole Balogun, Ado-Ekiti                          

For Mrs Felicia Salami, 37, if any soothsayer had told her that her heartthrob, Ganiyu, 43, would be killed in a gruesome manner in a fit of rage on April 13, 2019, she would never believe. Ganiyu lost his life allegedly in the hands of a 25-year-old man identified by the police as Taiwo Joshua who reportedly stabbed him with a jack knife common to security personnel.

The widow’s narration: “We had woken up around 5:45am that fateful day. I was hearing him when he was preparing to go out. When it was 6am he told me that he was coming and he went away with his own pair of keys to the house.

“About two minutes later, I heard noises in our neighbourhood. I looked through the window but could not see anything.  I went to the living room and peeped through the window blinds and saw people pointing towards our house.

“Our area is called Graceland Street in Ureje along Poly Road, Ado-Ekiti. I went out through the backdoor and saw my husband coming towards our house and placing his left hand on his neck. When I asked him what happened, he said that a certain Baba Taiwo’s child stabbed him.

“Despite the fact that everyone knew he needed help promptly to be taken to the hospital. We were there for more than 10 minutes nobody came to assist him. People were merely looking at him and did not bother to help him until one man from a far off came to rescue him to the hospital.

“When we got to the hospital he was able to say a lot of things. My husband said that the Baba blocked the road, which he was to pass using his car. He said he had to make effort to remove the blockage. But when the baba and some of his people, his Baba wife, his daughter saw him doing that, they came to fight him. He said they dragged him out of his car and began to beat him and tore his clothes. 

He said he had left the place and was returning home to change his clothes when the Baba’s son went into their house and brought a knife to stab him from the back on the neck. This was after the Baba had called on his son who they said is an Air Force officer to come out and deal with my husband. 

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“An official of the landlord association of Graceland was there when this happened but he did not make any attempt to help my husband. They took my husband to a private hospital but he was rejected. We had to rush him to the state university teaching hospital in Adebayo. 

“My husband was stabbed at the lower region of his neck with a jack knife usually carried by security people. Those who saw the area he was stabbed said no one survives after being stabbed at that part of the body. That means the man who stabbed him really wanted to kill him over a mere quarrel on some road block.”

When asked what she wanted the government and the security agents to do on the incident, she said: “The young man who stabbed my husband has been arrested with his father but I learnt that day before yesterday, the father has been released. I don’t want any settlement.

“The Bible says anyone who kills with a sword must die by a sword. I want justice for my husband. Our three kids are still very young, the firstborn is just about eight years old, in Basic Four. Our lastborn does not even know what happened, he is barely two.

“I am from Araromi-Ekiti in Ijero Local Government Area, and my husband is from Ido-Ekiti in Ido Osi LG. I want the government to prosecute the killer of my husband who stabbed him. I also appeal to the state government to assist me to take care of my children.

“I cannot take care of them alone. I am still owing the children’s school fees for the last term and they have not been able to resume at school to join their mates. My husband was the man paying the school fees and taking good care of all of us, but now they have killed him.

“My husband was a very caring and loving husband. He was the one doing everything at home, taking care of the kids and doing much of the house chores.”

The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr Caleb Nwachukwu, told Daily Sun: “Our investigation has shown that the man being accused of committing the crime may have actually committed it. So, we have written a letter about the development to the Air Force so that they can investigate and take necessary action against him and later return him to us for proper prosecution.”