Wife of slain activist, Fadipe testifies in court

Henry Ojelu

The trial commenced yesterday before Justice Atinuke Ipaye with the first prosecution witness, widow of late Fadipe telling the court how her husband sustained various injuries before he died in the hospital.

Narrating the incident‎, she said the incident happened on July 3, 2014 at 10pm after the deceased returned home late from office, took his meal and retired into his room.

“After his meal, he retired into his room, my sons went to their room adjacent to his room. My sister, (Abiola Owolabi) who worked with him in the chamber lived with us, my mother who came for her eye surgery was with us at home.

“The generating set was on because there was no light. So, I asked my 17 years old boy, Folahanmi, to go and switch off the generator. After 5min he left, I heard him shouting “my daddy, my daddy, there is thief in the house,’ she said.

The woman further told the court that the accused chased his son to the living room, having stabbed him, where she was watching television with the deceased.

“He (suspect ) was shouting that somebody was going to die that night. I was scared and hide behind my husband. He said the house is surrounded by other members of his gang. He demanded for N500,000.00 but we kept begging him.

My husband asked me to bring the envelope in his trouser which contained money but the defendant slapped my son with the knife. He also stabbed my husband with the knife which cut my husband’s neck.

“At that point all of us got angry and pushed him. Immediately he stabbed everyone in every direction. As he wanted to escape, he met ‎my mother who heard the noise, coming out from her room and stabbed her chest.

“My husband ran outside, followed by my second son, ‎Folatunmise to call for help of neighbour.”
At that time, the OPC people entered and over powered him. We took my husband to hospital some minutes before 12am but he died some minutes past 1am. My mother died two weeks after she heard of my husband’s death.”

When she was cross examined by the defendant counsel, Worer Obuagbakahe, the witness told court that they have been leaving in the estate for over 15 years. She noted that she could not say what transpired between his son and the defendant downstairs where he went to switch off the generating set.

The widow also maintained that she does not know whether the defendant’s cloth was wet or not adding that their gate is not easy for anybody to open outside beacuse it was a jam key gate.

According to her: “As at the time defendant entered, he had stabbed my son downstairs,blood was all over his body. The type of knife he used was ‎not the kitchen type, it was glued to his hand. She maintained that suspect stabbed her husband in several places.

However, sister to the widow who was also a victim and worked in the deceased’ chambers, Abiola Owolabi,also told the court that the defendant stabbed the deceased on several parts of his body.
In her testimony , Owolabi stated that she returned home with late Fadipe on the day of incident.

They were all watching news before the lost signal from DSTV because it was drizzling.

She said: “We all have to go up and sleep. I went to shower, I saw the through the window of my bathroom that Power Holding has restore electricity. I called Folahan to switch off the generator. Not lot I heard him shouting my name’ aunt Biola, Daddy there is thief in the compound’. He ran inside because the door was wide open.

“Defendant met all of us at the small closet before move to main room‎. He was furious, angry and said somebody must die here today. He demanded N500,000.00 and we started begging him. The late Fadipe appealed to him that we will cooperate but he doesn’t have that amount in the house. He asked his wife to bring envelop in his jacket in the room and handed it over to the defendant.‎”

She maintained that she does not know the amount in the envelope. She further testified that the suspect requested for laptop, phone and told them others were outside surrounded the house, if they refuse to cooperate he will call them to join him.

” subsequently, bar Fadipe told him everything, laptop and phone were down stairs, that we should go‎. He (defendant) gave lawyer Fadipe hot slap with the knife in his hand, his neck and also hit him on his left leg,in the process he started stabbing everybody in every direction.

“‎he wanted to run down stairs, we followed him. When we were all rushing down, my late mum heard the noise, she was worried what the noise was about and the defendant stabbed her left breast.
“Thereafter,we try to apprehend him (seun) , he stabbed Folahan on the fore head, and stabbed my left hand.”

She added that efforts by members of the family to overpower the defendant by hitting him on the head with various objects was not successful as he (seun) ‘was too powerful’ for them.

“He was very strong and had strength of 10 persons. Folatunmise, the second son of late Fadipe ran out to call O‎PC leaving me (Biola), Mrs Kemi (widow) and Folahan in the living room with the defendant.

“So he met late Fadipe lying on the floor fainted. At that time we were still struggling with the defendant who still struggling to escape before I used window blind to cover his face and the OPC came in, we left in the hand of OPC. We all rushed to join Folatunmise outside where we met him ( Fadipe) in the pool of blood on the floor.

” So we tried to rush him to the hospital,we couldn’t find the gate key. But we saw a taxi that took us to the hospital. It was Esther, our house help that called Mrs Fadipe in the hospital that my mother has fainted, so they sent someone from hospital to go and bring her. The blood from the wound in my hand had soaked my cloth, they gave me rapper in the hospital and treated me.

“While attending to lawyer Fadipe, Folahan too fainted in the hospital. So I left the hospital. On getting to the house, police officer from‎ Red House, Shaga, Area G Ogba and Pen Cinema, Agege have sorrunded the house. We were taken to house of the chairman of the estate where I was given cloth to change. At the time we got back to the hospital, Barrister Fadipe has died.

” His body ‎was taken to LASUTH and my mum was already admitted. She was discharged and returned to Ibadan. So after three days when we couldn’t hide Fadipe’s death for her, we told her and she later died two week after.”

‎Justice Ipaye therefore adjourned cross examination of second prosecution witness till Nov 18, 2015.