Nothing could be more cruel than a splash of pepper sauce on the face, but the ensuing drama was even more gruesome than his worst nightmares.
He tried running out of the house while crying for help but his beastly wife descended heavily on him with a knife, stabbing him with all the power she could muster. He managed to shove her off and ran out of his house screaming for help.
As if that was not enough, she defied all entreaties by on-lookers, ran back into the house and returned with a bowl of petrol. Bystanders ran for their dear lives paving the way for her heinous act. She poured the contents on him and set him ablaze. On the throes of death, Johnson staggered to a nearby gutter to put out the fire on his body, but that made no difference. She came after him yet again to complete the act with a knife. Even after Johnson was rescued from his murderer and rushed to the hospital, he could not live to tell the story of what transpired. That was the fate of Johnson for having a vampire as a wife.
The dastardly act occurred in Udu Road, Warri, Delta State last October. As the law was allowed to run its course, Rukvwe, a petty trader in her early thirties, is currently serving a life sentence in jail handed down by the court a couple of months ago.
According to our source, her late husband was a young footballer and pastor in the area. Saturday Vanguard gathered that trouble ensued after Rukvwe learnt that her husband had been going out with a young girl in Ughelli, Delta State and a marriage between both of them was in the offing. Sources said the wife, who was in her second trimester, got angry and decided to be brutal with her husband.
“The man (Johnson) had gone for a programme in Ughelli and stayed several days, perhaps longer than he had planned. He returned home to Warri to his pregnant wife; but the naive wife thought he had gone to visit his girlfriend.”
Sources added that the woman pretended nothing was wrong as they both went out for dinner that fateful day before the gruesome act. “She didn’t act as though anything was amiss. The man had taken his wife our for dinner that evening. They returned home that night and it was like all was well. But few minutes after they returned, she threw caution to the wind and killed her husband.”
For Mary Anozie, a resident of Ago Palace Way, Lagos State, what started as a huge joke between Romeo and Juliet snowballed into the death of her husband.
Apart from the fact that she currently battles with the psychological and emotional trauma that may permanently live with her, she carries the stigma of being a murderess. According to her, “It was a union of unending battle.” The couple quarreled over trivial issues until she accidentally ended her husband’s life, thereby making herself a widow. Narrating her trauma, she revealed to Saturday Vanguard that she could not explain what came upon her that fateful day.
“People refused to come to our aid as they thought it was just one of the usual quarrels we used to have. They thought it was the normal prelude to lovemaking between couples. So, they didn’t bother to intervene.”
The widow remorsefully said that “it was like that until that fateful day; after I had had my baby and my husband claimed he wasn’t buoyant enough to buy baby food for the new baby. That degenerated into another fight.
“Although my husband could not be called a man of means, I didn’t believe he hadn’t the money I asked for to buy the baby’s food. We had quarreled over that and he had beaten me up like he was wont to severally. It was painful, and I decided to avenge the beating. So, I picked up a stone to hit him but it accidentally hit him on the head. I watched him bleed to death.”
According to a police source, the case has been charged to court, adding that Mary is awaiting trial.
Our source also disclosed that the two children were in the custody of the husband’s family pending court judgment on the issue.
