Murdered at work: Edo woman seeks justice for late husband

From Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin

Mrs Osaiyobomwen Uwuigbe Akioyamen, the widow of late Matthew Akioyamen, has called for justice for her late husband, appealing to the Inspector-General of Police, Muhammed Adamu, and the Edo State Government for their intervention.

Matthew, until his death at age 38, was a staff of Okomu Oil Plc in Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo State.

Matthew had left home on the day he died for work never to return home, said his wife, Mrs Osaiyobomwen, who briefed reporters on Thursday in Benin City.

‘On 1 December, 2020, my husband called me to wish me happy new month and he told me that he was already in the place to supervise the people he was using to work,’ she narrated.

‘So, he told me that if he leaves that place, network will disappear from his phone and that he was already close to the place.

‘So, after which, on the 2nd, my brother-in-law called me… that my husband went to work but he did not return to the estate and that they should ask me if he came to Benin.

‘I told him that anytime he is coming to Benin, he first of all calls me that he is coming, even if it weekend.

‘And I asked, besides, he just left today and why will he come back today again because he doesn’t have anything to do in Benin and that they should ask them there.

‘He called them again and they were still saying the same thing.

‘At about 9 am on the 2nd, they called me from Okomu that they have found his dead body in the bush where he went to work inside the Okomu yard that he was brutally murdered.

‘I told them that it was already late,’ the widow and mother of three explained.

The young widow who is now left with three little children, the eldest age five and the youngest four months, told newsmen that compounding her woes was that the corpse of her husband was not shown to the family before it was allegedly deposited at the morgue by the management of Okomu.

She said when her brother-in-law got to the mortuary, he was able to identify him.

Mrs Akioyamen called on the Inspector-General of Police and the Edo State Government to swing into action and bring the perpetrators of the killers of her late husband to book, saying that before his death he was the breadwinner of the family.

In his reaction, spokesman of Okomu Plc, Fidelis Olise, said Matthew Akioyamen was not a staff of Okomu.

‘He worked for a company called Human Assets Centre. We sympathise with her for losing her husband but we don’t work with emotions and sentiments. I am aware his company has been cooperating with the police on the investigation and they even paid for autopsy which was supposed to be conducted and the company cannot force the police at their pace. It is the duty of the police to do a thorough investigation and police is investigating,’ the Okomu spokesman said.

‘We sympathise with her no doubt. It is very clear [that] he does not work with Okomu and I am aware that the company is already working on what they need to do.’

Commenting on the matter, the spokesman of the‎ Edo State Police Command, SP Chidi Nwabuzor‎, said: ‘Upon preliminary investigation, it was revealed that a witness, being a worker in that company, made a circumstantial evidence in writing that two persons were beaten; immediately operatives arrested those two, including five others, and investigation is on going on the matter.’