Woman Who Allegedly Set Husband Ablaze Defends Herself

36-year-old Bukola Olusegun Ogidiolu (pictured above) who set her husband ablaze on Valentine’s day at their Ado-Ekiti home for alleged inability to give her a treat has reportedly absolved herself of any wrongdoing, saying she doesn’t know how the fire started.

Tribune reports;

Her story hardly added up, but from the contention of the police and all the others, the law court would see to that. She denied that she doused him with petrol and also denied setting him on fire. She, however, admitted that they had a quarrel that night and that they (she and her husband) had always been having fights “because of a child.”

“I don’t know how it happened. We had a quarrel and he left me and went home. I went to meet him at home and by the time I got home, he had destroyed everything in our room. There were people around who were telling him to calm down.

The petrol was in our room, placed on top of the electricity generating set. Later I recall that he went outside the room and I heard the fire alarm. I could have prevented the fire from burning him that much but he was dragging me to himself but I freed myself from his grip and ran out.

We later took him to the hospital and I was arrested the day after by the police. It happened at about 11:30 pm on Wednesday and I was arrested the day after.

Our quarrel has always been about our not having a child together. It has nothing to do with valentine outing because I’m not a baby that would be asking to be taken out. We’ve been married since 2012 and I’ve been taking drugs so that I could have a child for him.

“He smokes but I didn’t see him light a cigarette on that night. But from the reports I heard from those who saw him at the hospital, they said he was holding a lighter. He was standing behind me, towards the passage and he was there when he raised the fire alarm.”

A member of the hospital medical personnel nursing him said, “it seems that his penis was the main target of the attack,” and a worker who didn’t want to be named said, “the primary target of Abimbola’s assailant might be his penis as the organ had been badly burnt.”

The victim’s mother, Mrs. Folake Olusegun, said all her son could say before he passed out at the hospital was that his wife was angry that he did not take her out for the celebration of the Valentine. According to her, “This caused a serious misunderstanding which made his wife threaten to set him ablaze. My son said he dared his wife, saying she couldn’t do that and suddenly she poured petrol on him and also threw the fire at him.”

Mr. Abimbola Olusegun Ogidiolu ended up in hospital fighting for his dear life, hours after he returned home after a hard day’s job in the Ekiti State capital where he operates as a commercial driver.

Neighbours says the man might have been oblivious of the Valentine’s celebration as they described him as “not the type.” According to some of them, “this is a man who was out all day at work and he has never been the ‘guyish’ type that is known with frolicking on a day like that.”

But his wife, they claimed was on the opposite side of the divide when it comes to socials. The claim among some of the neighbours was that Mrs. Bukola Olusegun Ogidiolu “could possess the tendency to go all the way.”

Neighbours claimed they heard the couple exchange angry words at about midnight before tragedy struck.

“At about midnight, the husband suddenly ran out from their apartment, crying agonizingly for help. He was on fire and had cried that his wife had set him ablaze. He was burning and was battling with the fire. We had to rush out to rescue him by quickly getting water and pouring it on him. But for the prompt intervention of some of us, he would have been burnt to death. We also reported the incident to the Ado Central Divisional police station from where policemen came and arrested his wife the day after,” an anonymous resident of their compound reported.

Olusegun is still in a critical condition at the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH) where he was rushed to after the  ugly incident.

The Ekiti State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Albert Adeyemi confirmed the incident and assured that the suspect would be charged to court as soon as investigation on the matter is concluded.