Lawrence Enyoghasu
The story made shocking news when it found its way into the print and airwaves last weekend: “Alleged infidelity: Okada rider kills wife, son, self in Lagos.” Emerging posthumous details show that the man at the centre of the story, Mr. Charles Enifeh Omomo, said to be a commercial motorcyclist (known as okada rider), while alive, did not believe that his last child, Glorious, a boy, who incidentally was killed in the tragic incident, belonged to him.
Neighbours said that the man known generally as Baba Efe, so named after his eldest daughter, Efe, believed that his late wife, Faith, got Glorious through extra-marital affair. And, the hatred he had for the poor boy was such that he was said to have refused to carry him in his arms while he was a baby. In fact, unlike their death parted them, last week in such an inglorious manner, the problem was said to have become a constant source of acrimony and rancour between the beleaguered couple, although neighbours who knew about it said they tried to advise them to dissolve the union amicably and go their separate ways if they felt so incompatible.
It was an advice that went unheeded leading to the cold-blooded murder of the woman and her last child and subsequent suicide by the man when the true picture of his horrendous deed stared him squarely in the face, last weekend. No.12 Obafemi Eruga Street, off Ekuji Street, off Borokini Street, Aga community, Ikorodu town, Lagos State, where the incident took place still wear a mournful look days after the tragedy and may take a long time to return to normalcy.
The threat and deed
Sources say the late Omomo had always threatened to kill Faith and Glorious over the allegation of infidelity. But for a long time it remained largely that, a threat, until Friday, May 24, 2019, when for no other cause than what neighbours and acquaintances already know about the case, Omomo decided to make good his threat in such a bloody and callous manner. An argument, which reportedly ensued, degenerated into a brawl between the couple in the early hours of the day.
Eyewitnesses said that before she finally breathed her last, Faith was heard shouting for help. However, when neighbours went to the apartment by 8 a.m. with the mind of settling the scores between the couple, they were thrown off-balance at the sight of 38-year-old Faith and Glorious lying in their own pool of blood. They also found Omomo dangling from the ceiling fan.
The untold story by neighbours
When this reporter visited the sleepy area on Sunday and Monday, he found the compound made up of a bungalow of three-bedroom flat and five single rooms at the back of it, completely deserted by tenants. For now, only the owners of the house are left in the compound. But the palpable fear the tragedy has brought upon the place is evident everywhere. In fact, it is such that when a dark-complexioned girl who this reporter saw sitting on a concrete gravesite on the day of his visit, was asked to bring something from the house, she refused for fear of being attacked by ghosts. She only agreed to go when a lady offered to follow her.
The crowd gathered at the house all wore long faces. They took turn in sighing out their shock and sympathy over the incident, until one loses count. There are three pathways leading into the compound; while one led to the front flat, the second, on the left, led to the late couple’s room while the third, led to toilet and bathroom.
According to a dark-complexioned woman, Mrs. Odukoya, who claimed to be the landlady of the house, the late couple who had lived in the compound for about 10 years, had enjoyed a peaceful marriage until they gave birth to Glorious. The woman who is of average height and popularly known as Iya Onile, talked glowingly of Faith’s industriousness and hard work and regrets she is no more.
“It is a pity that we lost that woman to her husband’s complex,” she said. “She was a hard-working woman and a good mother. When things started getting tough for the man some eight years ago, she started hawking drinks. At a point when it seemed that she was not getting enough from it to take care of her family, she joined a group of female cleaners. She also joined some bricklayers. I mean, she carried blocks and sand on her head to make sure that the family survived.”
The anguish brought about by what happened could be seen on her face as she laboured to complete the story. “You can never see that woman outside,” she added, after some pause. “Anytime, she tried to take in fresh air, you would always see her in the company of her children only. And they would not allow you to rest because they would always be speaking in their language. Sometimes, I would crack jokes with her and said they don’t allow us to hear a word from the noise they are making with their language. She was so beautiful. She was also a church person: she never missed church on Sundays and mid-week services.”
Which is why she is shocked by the whole development. On the child paternity claim that eventually claimed their lives, she admitted that they had been having some issues on it for some time before the murder and suicide took place. “I know that when my husband was alive, he tried talking to them and even advised the man to let the woman go if he thinks the boy was not his son,” she stated.
A neighbour who gave her name as Arike Dare, said that Faith was the most unfortunate woman she has ever met in life, adding she was married to a poor, unappreciative husband whose vicious and untrammelled temperaments has turned the two girls they left behind into sudden orphans.
“Mr. Omomo made sure that the light in Faith’s eye dimmed and left her children in horror,” she sighed as she snapped her fingers. “They are now orphans. Imagine how tough this country was for them when their parents were alive. Now imagine what it will be like now they are dead. The woman was a model for me while she was alive. I might be older than she was but she had a spirit I admire. She learnt how to sew because she does not have money to pay tailors and seamstresses to sew clothes for her children. She would offer to clean the compound for everybody and be paid. Even the Okada business her husband was doing, I am sure the greater part of the money used in purchasing it was hers. She gave it to her husband to use to buy the Okada.”
On her religious devotion which her landlady earlier talked about, Arike said: “Faith would always persuade her husband to go to church but he would refuse. That refusal is what led to this. The problem is that he has taken a saint away from us. People are saying it was as a result of her last child. On Sundays, he seats on this pavement, located at the veranda of the house, from 7 am till 7 pm. He won’t work. He won’t go to church. He sits and drinks bottles of alcohol till he gets drunk and goes inside his house to sleep.”
The aftermath of murder and suicide
Following the incident, officers of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) from Ikeja and Ikorodu Police Division were said to have visited the compound to evacuate the corpses while investigation into the case continues. Confirming the report, a man answering to the name, Jamiu Odukoya, the son of the landlady, had, after reluctantly offering and receiving a handshake, from this reporter, said: “The police have settled all the issues for the families. They have shared the remaining children between them and it is not a matter for the people who live in this house any more. All the same, the misfortune has cast this house in bad light .Nobody knows how long it will take before the stigma goes away. But we are known as God-fearing people and that is the only thing that will save this house. The people I pity most are the children they left behind.”
Blaming Faith for not reading the writing on the wall early enough, he said: “Their mother knew she was in danger. Since the husband started insinuating that she had an extramarital affair, she could have left him and run for help. My late father advised both of them to separate if the marriage was not working but they didn’t heed the advice. I think it was not the first time he would lay his hand on her because he always sounded bitter each time he talked about their last child and I don’t think he ever carried him in his arms when he was a baby.”
`We will throw his corpse into the evil forest’
Ughosu Julius, an older relative of Charles Omomo, is grieving for the loss in their family. He said the family has lost one of its virtuous wives while also bemoaning the fate of the two children, Success, and Akukpa who would now be sent to the village to continue their education.
The man said that the infidelity saga had been in the family for fives years and had been settled by family members. “We learnt of the matter four years ago and it has been giving us sleepless nights because we all didn’t believe our brother. When I heard about it, I called my brother and had a chat with him. I got scared of it immediately. This was after he had gone to the village and was counseled by the family. He was petty on the matter to the point that he denied Glorious from going to school. Glorious’ elder sister and brother were in secondary school and primary schools while he was stuck with his mother at home. Then, he came up with the idea of not sending the rest to school for fear of being kidnapped. It was the issue that they were quarreling on, according to his daughter, that led to their death. She said that they fought over their school and went to bed when they woke up they saw their brother lying in the pool of his blood,” he stated.
Regrettably, Julius said that the children are currently in his care but “will be sent to the village to be with their grandma,” adding that when the corpses of the victims are released, the late wife will get a befitting burial but same can’t be said for Charles. “In my village, we don’t bury those who commit suicide, we throw them away. If they get to the village, we throw them into an abandoned evil forest for animals,” he stated.
Julius said the pain now is training the children in the village that they hardly know and the stigma that goes with their parents’ death. “I wish there is a way they can have a better life elsewhere,” he stated.