The case of late banker, Titilayo Omosoje Arowolo who was allegedly murdered by her husband, Akolade Arowolo came up today at the Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja.
The victim’s step mother, Mrs Adetoun Yeside Oyakhire, told the court that the relationship between the couple was already strained before her murder.
An emotional Mrs.Oyakhire, who was the fifth prosecution’s witness, gave a vivid account of the harrowing relationship that existed between the deceased and her husband during their two-year-long marriage.
She told Justice Lateefa Okunnu that the last time the deceased came running home in January 2011 and had told her father that she was tired of the marriage and wanted to file for divorce.
According to Mrs Oyakhire, Titilayo had told her family that her housekeeper had reportedly caught her husband in bed with another woman. The deceased had also discussed the matter of his infidelity with his mother before moving back to her father’s house.
The witness, who was led in evidence by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Mrs. Olabisi Ogungbesan, told the court that the late Titilayo’s father, before going back to Kano, warned her not to return to her husband’s house.
The stepmother said that Titilayo however went back to her husband when he came in April to beg and asked for forgiveness adding “I think he succeeded in convincing her that he is a changed person”.
In another account, Mrs Oyakhire said that three months after their marriage, they had a quarrel.
“I can’t remember how it started but I remembered that Kolade chased her round the house with a knife. She was still breast feeding her baby then. He succeeded in snatching the baby from her and took her to his mother at Ejigbo”.
She said that Akolade’s mother later brought the baby back to Titilayo in her father’s house.
In yet another account the step mother told the court that Akolade had at a time threatened to throw the deceased from a top floor and that her father advised her to report the threat at the police station for documentation “but I am not sure she did”.
The fourth prosecution witness, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Titus Ogbonna who testified before Mrs Oyakhire had told the court that based on the investigation he conducted, he was certain that Akolade Arowolo murdered his wife, Titilayo Omosoje Arowolo.
He stressed that he based his conclusion on the findings in the investigation he conducted into the matter.
Under cross examination by the counsel to the defence, Mr. Olanrewaju Ajanaku, the ASP also told the court that there was enough circumstantial evidence linking Arowolo to the death of his wife, Titilayo.
The case was adjourned until 27 March when the hearing will continue.
