Monday Hounga, surrendered
himself to the police in Benin on January 1, 2016, and was transferred to the
FESTAC Police Division the next day.
The matter was immediately
transferred to the State Department of Criminal Investigation, Yaba.
The Lagos State Police
Command had contacted Interpol to assist with the arrest of the suspect, after
he was said to have escaped to Benin Republic.
The police later released a
statement saying it had arrested a woman, Taiye Ganiyu, and one Sodjinou
Singbo, for aiding his escape.
Twenty-eight years old Hounga
said that he had never had a fight with live in lover Cecelia in the house he
rented in Raji Rasaki Estate.
While Hounga is an iron
bender, Cecelia worked in a shop in Mile 2 as a hairdresser.
Hounga said,
“We have known each other
for more than 10 years now. We met while in the primary school. Although we
attended different primary schools, we usually met during inter-house
competitions and that was when we started dating.
“I rented the apartment
where we lived and we had been living together for more than one year. We would
have been married, but her parents said she should get pregnant for me first.
“On December 25, around
12.30am, while we were both asleep, she (Cecelia) suddenly shouted, ‘Monday,
help me.’ As I opened my eyes, I woke up to see a gun pointed at my head. The
intruders were three, but only one carried a gun. He said if I shouted, he
would blast my head off.
“They stabbed me in the
hand and in the wrist when I tried to struggle with them. They later stabbed me
in the stomach. I forced myself to pull out the knife from my stomach. When I
checked Cecelia, she was dead.”
He said the landlord of the
house and a few other people later arrived and put him in a tricycle which took
him to a nearby hospital where he was rejected.
He said he was also taken
to the FESTAC Police Station, where he was issued a police report to enable him
get quick treatment.
However, around 4am, after
being rejected at a general hospital and two other places, a relative was said
to have suggested that he should be taken to the Porto Novo Hospital in Benin.
The doctors at the hospital
were said to have operated on him, before placing him on admission.
He said,
“I was on admission when I
heard in the news that I killed Cecelia. Here was somebody I loved so much and
would many times kneel to beg whenever we had issues. Why would I kill her?”
Hounga explained that
Cecelia had once separated from him after she was impregnated by another man,
whom she claimed her family supported.
He said after a few years
with the man, she returned to him, adding that she had two stillbirths for the
former boyfriend.
“She came back in 2014 and
because of the love I had for her, I accepted her. Despite what happened, I
have not stopped loving her and if I get out of this case, I don’t think I will
ever love any woman like I loved her,” he said.
However, the elder sister
of the victim, Titilayo Joseph, denied that Hounga and Cecelia lived together,
saying that her sister was staying with her in Mazamaza.
She said,
“Cece (Cecelia) lived with me and not him. She
would go to work in the morning and return home at evening.
“I called her on December
24 to know why she was not at home and she said the Yuletide season had kept
her busy at work.
“On December 25, she came
home to pick something and my neighbours said they saw her. I was sick and
couldn’t go out.
“I was at home on December
26 when I received a call that she had a fight with her boyfriend and he had
stabbed her to death.
“He claimed they were
attacked by robbers; were they the only one living in that compound? Why was
she the only one that was stabbed to death? Why didn’t he raise the alarm?”
Titilayo said the family
was not aware of the relationship, urging the police to bring the killer of her
sister to justice.
A source said the police
would accommodate all witnesses and sieve the evidence to arrive at the truth.
He said,
“It was a miracle that he
survived because all his entrails were out. One of the doctors in the hospitals
he was rushed to has made statement to corroborate Hounga’s story.”
The Deputy Police Public
Relations Officer, Lagos State Command, ASP Aliyu Giwa, confirmed the arrest.
He added that the police
would get to the roots of the case and give justice to the deceased.
Punch
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