More heart- wrenching details have emerged on how the Scotland returnee, Chinyere Ogudoro and her brother, Ifeanyi were reportedly roasted to death by her husband, Benjamin Ogudoro in Abule Ado area of Lagos state, last Friday.
When Vanguard visited the community where the incident happened, on Saturday evening, the black gate of the building was locked from inside while household items littered the compound.
Neighbours and onlookers stared pitifully at the building as they walked or drove past. Most of them were not freely disposed to discuss the tragedy as they kept on lamenting that the incident was the worst bestiality they have witnessed so far in their lives.
How it happened
Vanguard Metro learned that the deceased, Chinyere and her brother, natives of Umudagu Mbieri in Imo state, met their untimely and gruesome death a few hours after she came back from Scotland.
It was gathered that Benjamin, an indigene of Ngor Okpalla Local Government in Imo State set his wife, Chinyere and her brother on fire while they were asleep inside one of the rooms in their apartment at about 1:40 am. After setting them ablaze, he locked the door from outside, ran out and began to shout fire, fire just to make the incident look like a fire outbreak. He ran towards the bar where he was seen drinking earlier on and collapsed on the ground before his friends rushed him to the hospital. He was later arrested by the police at the hospital where he was receiving drip after his act was blown open.
Neighbours open up
A neighbour who simply identified himself as Obinna who resides at house 9, beside the house where the victims were burnt told Vanguard Metro that, he was sitting outside with his friends when the lady and her brother Ifeanyi came back.
According to Obinna, “Chinyere and her brother returned on Thursday night at about 10 pm. She came down from the vehicle and opened the gate and Ifeanyi drove the vehicle inside. When they came back, Benjamin was not at home, he was at a nearby bar where he was drinking with some friends.
“Around past one or thereabout early in the morning, we began to hear shrilling cries of anguish. It was the shouts that woke most of us up. When we came out, we saw that their building was on fire, we started pouring water to make sure the fire didn’t enter our compound. Some neighbours went inside to help rescue the victims.
“Other neighbours came around to help. By the time we were able to open the door, Ifeanyi, the brother to the woman ran out with parts of his body badly burnt. He kept on telling us faintly that his sister was trapped inside the burning house.
We rushed him immediately to a nearby hospital while others continued fighting the raging inferno. Unfortunately, by the time we were able to break into one of the rooms, we saw the charred remains of the sister lying flat on her tummy, from her waist downwards was burnt terribly.”
Eyewitness account
A man who lives in the same compound with the couple (names withheld) told Vanguard Metro that: “Ben, the husband to the dead woman, called me on the phone that his wife was coming back on Thursday evening.
I felt he wasn’t around and and must have been on his way back to the house. It was during the rescue operation that people said they were together with him drinking when the vehicle that brought the wife passed.
When they came, I opened the gate, the brother drove inside. We exchanged pleasantries she responded, smiling, and I went inside.
“At about midnight, I saw Ben at the back where their generator was kept fiddling with fuel container. I didn’t know what he wanted to do with the fuel as there was light. I simply went to bed. I am a programmer, if I knew that the man had other plans, I would have been very alert.
“It was the woman’s shout that woke me up from sleep and I was wondering what was happening. The fire was already raging when I woke up. She was already burning when she was shouting. I hadn’t seen the fire, it was her shout that woke me up and when I looked up the roof of my apartment, I noticed it was also in flames. From what we later found out, Ben took the fuel, poured it inside the room, where his wife and his brother were sleeping, poured some on their body and locked the door from outside. Then ran outside and started shouting fire.
“I strongly feel that he must have planned this since he locked them from inside and disconnected the water flow. The tap wasn’t flowing; I collected a bucket from neighbours which I used to fetch water before people began to assist to put off the fire. I was the one that started fighting to put off the raging inferno first. I poured the first bucket of water, poured the second, immediately I saw her body lying down, I dropped the bucket and walked out, she was dead.”
Lamenting, he continued, “Funny enough, I renewed my rent in March, if I knew he would burn down the house, I would not have renewed the rent. I hardly stay here because I work on the Island but I kept the apartment for my siblings whenever they visits.
“The mistake she made was arriving at night, if she had arrived during the day, they would have discussed in broad daylight and probably sorted out their misunderstanding before night fall. For the man to commit such a heinous crime at night, it shows that he is strong-hearted. There was a time he chased his wife with machete but I believe the woman never expected he would set her ablaze. I don’t think it was the alcohol that made him do it, it was already premeditated.
“We learned that when the police asked him where he was when the fire started, he said he was in the sitting room. This is not true. I am aware that he normally stays in his sitting room during the day when there is no light. He soaked the room with fuel, he entered the room where they were sleeping, I heard Ifeanyi shouting “did this man pour me fuel”?
“This is the room (pointing at the burnt room) where I saw her dead body on the floor. The door to the room was burnt down after this room. Look at the adjoining wall, that is my apartment, most of my stuffs were destroyed. I guess her brother’s idea was to stay and protect his sister not knowing the man had other plans.”
More testimonies
Another resident, Uzizi said it was the burnt wife, Chinyere that built the house before she resigned from the bank where she worked as a manager and relocated abroad. “Soon after she relocated, she ensured that her husband, Benjamin, joined her. But he returned afterwards and stayed back in Nigeria obviously because of his lifestyle. He is an accountant with a firm. It was his wife that secured the job for him.
“The woman made a serious mistake; she should not have slept in that house after returning that day. When you are sleeping with your enemy, you need to be at alert. I don’t think they have settled their issues because Benjamin was out there drinking, from 10 pm; he left that place after midnight. I learned he drank heavily. It was from his mouth that I heard fire, fire. He thought that the fire will consume everything. By the time he was shouting, the building was already ablaze.”
As at the time of going to press, it was learned that the suspect and husband to the burnt Scotland returnee, Benjamin, is still being interrogated by the police. Police sources said he seem not to be coherent in his statement as he kept on acting like somebody in a trance.
Vanguard
