Domestic Violence: Ibadan Lawyer Accused of Stabbing Husband to Death Shares her Side of the Story

A female lawyer, Yewande Oyediran, 28, who was accused of stabbing her husband, 38-year-old Lowo Oyediran, to death at their Akobo estate home in Ibadan, Oyo state after a domestic dispute, has denied the allegations.

During her hearing yesterday, June 5th, at the court, Yewande denied killing her husband, a France-based businessman, claiming she loved him.

“I did not kill my husband. I love my husband, even if we quarrel, it won’t be to the point of death,” Yewande emphatically said.

She told the court that she had a scuffle with her husband on February 2, 2017 and in the process he threatened her with a knife.

The defendant while being led in her examination in chief by the lead defence counsel, Leye Adepoju, informed the court that Lowo under normal circumstances is a quiet, shy and reserved man, adding that when he drinks however, he becomes super excited, exhibits sudden boldness that is not his usual attitude, gets angry easily and this made him to be violent on occasions, Nigerian Tribune reports.

In her four hours’ testimony, the accused stated that all was well between her and her husband and they went through their normal activities until around after 10 in the night when she received a call from an obviously Rachael, accusing her of not allowing Lowo take care of her and her son, adding that she went to Lowo in the room to complain since she had earlier told him to stop Rachael from calling her.

“When she called that night, she sounded angry and was ranting; accusing me of not allowing my husband to take care of her and her son. I switched off and went to meet my husband in the bedroom; he was lying on the bed with his phone. I called him, Lowo, you promised that this lady will not call me again. She just called now and was insulting me. He just got up from the bed and was very angry and was asking me, what is wrong with you? What is your problem? What exactly do you want? He started beating me and we were struggling, he held me to the ground while I was screaming for help.

“My landlord and the landlady were banging the entrance door but couldn’t gain entrance because the door was locked. I tried to get up but he overpowered me; I scratched and hit his back but it had no effect and he refused to let me go. So I stretched my hand towards the dressing table and picked the first thing my hand touched, a scissors, I used it to injure him and that was when he let go,” she said.

Narrating further, Yewande, said she told the landlord and his wife what happened, but she and Lowo didn’t tell them what led to it though she eventually told the landlady who told her she does not want to hear any noise as they would resolve the matter in the morning, but told her not to lock the door again. Thinking all was over, she went to sleep beside her husband on the bed.

“I was fast asleep when I felt someone beating me and I opened my eyes to see it was my husband beating me with a plank. I tried to get out of bed, but he will push me back and beat me with the plank. I was begging him because I didn’t want to make noise. Suddenly, I saw a knife with him and he said you injured me earlier, you too will know how it feels to be wounded with a sharp object, I continued begging and moving out of the room with my back.

“He was following me and asking where I was running to and by the time we got to the sitting room, he pushed me aside and removed the key from the front door without checking if it was locked, then asked how I will be able to escape. I opened the door and ran out, he charged after me and pulled me back with my braid. We struggled with the knife on the veranda and I escaped, he caught up by the fence and we continued struggling with the knife until he had me pinned to the landlord’s car,” she stated.

“We earlier had a scuffle in which my late husband beat me up and it was settled by our landlord and his wife and my husband had gone for treatment in a neighbourhood hospital, after I had inflicted some cuts on him, because he had pressed me on the bed and continually hit me.

This was the aftermath of a phone call I received from a woman on that night who had earlier claimed that she had a child for my husband. My husband confirmed it and we have quarreled over it, but had settled the issue since she first called me on July 7, 2015.

However, after some few hours, he became angry again and started hitting me with a plank. He was angry about the wounds and threatened to retaliate. I managed to escape and he still followed me outside with a knife and pressed me to our Landlord’s car.

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Later, I felt that I have been able to push him off me, only to later realise that it was actually our landlord that had helped me out of his grips. I rushed to our landlord’s flat and once inside, I turned to see what was going on behind me, only to see my husband coming after me. Suddenly, I saw him falling on his back as he tried to climb the steps to the apartment. I rushed back after him and tried to pull him up only to see blood gushing out of his neck. I quickly shouted for help and the landlord and his wife together with his son and a Doctor whose clinic was on our street, tried to apply first aid. My landlady told my Landlord to take my husband to the hospital, but he declined saying that there was blood on his car and so needed to wash it before he can take it out.

“My landlord and I went to our neighbour, Mrs Olubunmi Onipede, to help me take him to the hospital, but she refused too, saying that I earlier insulted her when she came to intervene in the earlier scuffle. Eventually, she agreed to take us to the hospital later I have promised to fuel her car the next day, because she had told us she didn’t have fuel in her car. While on our way to the University Teaching Hospital, UCH, as advised by the Doctor inside our compound, our neighbour, stopped at the hospital on our street claiming that we needed to collect a referral, but the Nurse on duty, said we didn’t need one and I also heard the voice of the Doctor in the back ground telling her we didn’t need one, but that we should rush to UCH.

We proceeded towards the hospital only for her to take Akobo Road, when we got to General Gas Road, instead of the Iwo Road that is shorter, I asked why she was taking the route, but she replied that we must take him to the nearest hospital because it was an emergence case. At that time, I still kept calling my husband, ”lowo”, ”lowo” and he was nodding to me even though his eyes were closed”.

In addition, she stated that after they took him to the clinic, she couldn’t explain what happened again as she only became aware of herself at the state CID, but said the knife and fork in the exhibits were not the ones from her house. Also, she claimed her husband’s family members took things away from the house when the police came to the crime scene, but agreed that there was no one around while they were struggling with the knife and only two of them slept in the apartment that night.

Responding to an earlier statement made by one of her neighbours, she told the court that it was actually her that was screaming and calling for help when her husband slumped.

The presiding judge and Chief Judge of Oyo state, Justice Munta Abimbola, afterwards adjourned the case till July 10 for adoption of the written addresses of both the prosecutor and the defence counsel.