“He brought out his manhood and asked me to look at it. He said his wife infected him with a disease and that was why his manhood was small. The wife accused him of stealing her money (N14, 000) and he admitted it. He told her ‘didn’t you know I’m a thief?’ Then, he told her she would not live to see the New Year. Then, he picked up a stone and threw it at his wife. Then, we went inside. Soon, we heard the cries of the woman that Baba Gbolahan (Gbolahan’s father) had locked them inside and set the house on fire. The door was forced open. She emerged from the room with just her panties on, clutching her stiff, dead daughter.”
The above is about a woman residing at Labiran area of Ibadan, Oyo State, Mrs Felicia Olalere, with her eight-year-old son, Gbolahan. Both lost their lives in the early hours of Friday after the room they slept was engulfed in fire from an unknown source.
However, residents of the area are alleging that the woman’s husband, known as Muyideen Olalere, carried out the arson.
He was said to have locked each of the rooms in the house with padlocks to prevent occupants from leaving their respective rooms.
Saturday Tribune gathered that the deceased and her husband had a quarrel at about 8:00p.m. when the man, whose source of livelihood was unknown, came to the house.
The woman was said to have accused her husband of stealing a sum of N14,000 from her bag, which the man reportedly admitted, calling her bluff.
Neighbours said that the woman raised her voice in anger and said that she knew the act of stealing would mean nothing to her husband who was in prison two years ago for criminal acts.
The man reportedly became angry, saying that the woman exposed his secret to everyone and added that it meant nothing to him because he went to the prison with her brother.
He was said to have threatened that he would make sure that his wife did not live to witness 2014.
Olalere reportedly demanded for his son, Gbolahan, a request rejected by his wife.
Efforts by neighbours to settle the matter proved abortive as the man was reported to have hurled a stone at his wife, hitting her on the thigh.
He was said to have left in anger, after which residents of the eight-room storey building went to their rooms to sleep while two of them left for vigil services in their different churches.
They were, however, woken up by shouts of fire which broke out from the deceased woman’s room on the first floor of the house.
The man, who is said to be on the run, was suspected to have poured petrol round the room where his wife and child slept and ignited it.
An occupant of one of the rooms on the same floor told Saturday Tribune that he was woken by a burning smell and discovered that he had been locked in from outside when he attempted to open the door to escape.
He said he forced the door open and went to rescue the deceased, whose room had also been padlocked from outside, when he heard her cries.
An elderly woman who is physically-challenged and resides on the ground floor of the house told Saturday Tribune that while the couple was quarrelling, the man brought out his manhood, accusing his wife of infecting him with sexually-transmitted disease which caused the manhood to shrink.
“He brought out his manhood and asked me to look at it. He said his wife infected him with a disease and that was why his manhood was small. The wife accused him of stealing her money (N14, 000) and he admitted it. He told her ‘didn’t you know I’m a thief?’ Then, he told her she would not live to see the New Year. Then, he picked up a stone and threw it at his wife. Then, we went inside. Soon, we heard the cries of the woman that Baba Gbolahan (Gbolahan’s father) had locked them inside and set the house on fire. The door was forced open. She emerged from the room with just her panties on, clutching her stiff, dead daughter.
“I entered my room with my children and they were watching television. The fan that was rotating was also making so much noise and I told them to put everything off, telling my children that I was afraid of the action Baba Gbolahan could take with the threat he issued.
“My children convinced me to forget about it and in the process, I slept off. Suddenly, I heard a knock on my door and the voice of Mama Gbolahan wafted in, saying that I had been locked in and she was almost dead. People helped us to break our door from outside and we escaped from the house. I saw the wife in her underpants clutching her son who had gone stiff with serious burns.”
“The neighbourhood youths and the landlords really tried for us. We are grateful to them. They put out the fire and then invited the fire service. All the wife’s belongings were consumed by the fire.”
The woman and the child were said to have been rushed to two prominent government hospitals in Ibadan but were rejected because of the severity of the burns they sustained. Saturday Tribune learnt that the boy groaned in pains, asking for water. He was said to have complained of stomach pains and later asked to sleep, after which he gave up the ghost.
When the woman saw that she could not get medical treatment, she reportedly asked to be taken to her brother’s house at Ogbere Babanla area of the city, where she eventually gave up the ghost around 4:00a.m.
A former resident of the house, Taofeek Adesina Olaniyan, who said he recently relocated to a nearby house and lost his refrigerator which he was yet to pick from the house, revealed that Baba Gbolahan was an ardent marijuana smoker.
Another neighbour also said that the deceased child pointed out to his mother that he saw his father with a keg of petrol that night before he went out again, unknown that he would use it to set the house ablaze.
When contacted, the police spokesperson in the state, DSP Olabisi Okuwobi-Ilobanafor, said that the police were investigating the case and were also on the trail of the suspect towards whom all fingers were pointing. She added that the corpses of the deceased had been deposited at the mortuary at State Hospital, Yemetu, Ibadan, for autopsy.
Source: Tribune
