A 21-year-old man named Salami Anedu has been detained by the police in Edo State for reportedly killing his wife after an argument over food.
The suspect was paraded among other suspects detained for allegedly participating in a number of crimes throughout the state, Platinum Times reports.
The suspect was detained on August 30 by the Fugar division of the state police command, according to SP Chidi Nwanbuzor, a spokesperson for the command.
He said that on August 29, one Aluaye Momoh reported to the police that Salami Anedu, 21, killed his wife Esther Friday, 21, in their home in Ugbekpe Community, Edo State, with a stick because of an argument about family matters.
According to the spokesperson, the suspect accidentally killed his wife by hitting her with a piece of wood during the argument.
He claimed that while the body was being transported to the mortuary at Fugar General Hospital, the police rushed the scene and detained the suspect.
He said that the matter had been given to the state criminal investigation department’s Benin homicide division for a covert probe.
The suspect said during a press conference that he had a fight with his wife over her refusal to give him food after she had cooked it.
He said,
“She cook rice and she said I should eat from the food. I went to cook yam and egg on my own, she said I can’t eat the food. As I was eating the food, she started quarrelling with me and threatened to bring his brother to my house and beat me up. She left.
“I thought she was joking but she came back with two of her brothers who were armed with sticks and they started fighting me. After the fight, my wife went to my mother’s house to pass the night but I was surprised when vigilante came to arrest me that I killed my wife.
“I didn’t killed my wife. I didn’t hit her with wood. It was her brother that came to my house with wood but because I dragged with them, they said I was the one that killed her. My wife was sick before.”