A 27-year-old man, Promise David, has beaten his 18-year-old baby mama, Miss Esther Pascal, to death during a fight over food and welfare money for their baby. The incident happened on Sunday night on Ebis Mechanic Road, Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital. The deceased had a two-year-old daughter for her lover who works for a popular car wash outlet in the Yenagoa metropolis.
Some residents of the neighbourhood said the quarrels between the lovers had been recurring lately. A resident, who spoke in confidence, said they were woken up around 11:30 p.m. on Sunday by the loud cry of the deceased calling for help.
The source said: “By the time few of us got to their door, it was locked from inside. But we forced it open and met the deceased on the floor. We quickly tried to revive her with water thinking she fainted but we discovered that she was dead. We immediately apprehended the man and alerted the police.”
While some residents claimed the man used a heavy object to hit the woman on the head, others said she might have died due to a heavy blow on her by the culprit.
Already some representatives of the Gender Response Initiatives (GRI), established by the wife of Bayelsa Governor, Mrs. Gloria Diri, have visited the scene of the crime. Dise Sheila Ogbise, a lawyer, who is the deputy coordinator of GRI, said the incident was unfortunate. She called for more advocacy to end issues of domestic violence and violence against the girl child.
A spokesman for the Bayelsa Police Command, Asinim Butswat, confirmed the incident. He said the suspect had been arrested by the police at the Ekeki Police Division and that investigation was ongoing.
Also, a housewife, identified as Mrs. Eniye Zuokemefa-Peter, has been arrested by the police for alleged involvement in the brutal killing of her husband, a lecturer at the Bayelsa State College of Education in Sagbama, Mr. Enebraye Zuokemefa-Peter.
The arrest of Mrs. Zuokemefa-Peter on Sunday night was based on petitions from the family of the deceased and on complaints of previous threats to his life during domestic squabbles over issues of infidelity.
It was gathered that the deceased was shot three times by gunmen on Friday after transacting business at a Point-of-Sale (POS) along the old Assembly Quarters Road in Ekeki area of Yenagoa.
A family member, who pleaded anonymity, claimed that the accused wife had on several occasions threatened to kill her husband over allegations of having children outside their marriage due to her inability to bear him a child.
The police spokesman confirmed the arrest, saying she was arrested based on ‘previous threats’.
