Husband Kills Wife For Selling Garri To A Male Customer At Night

A middle-aged housewife in Ikom Cross River State, Rose Eyam, has been sent to early grave with a head butt by her husband over suspicion that a late night customer who visited the house to buy garri-a local staple- had an affair with the deceased.

Daniel Sunday Eyam, a 54-year-old man, from Ikom in Cross River State, turned his wife into a football  bringing grief and tears to all.

Daniel, whose wife, Rose deals on groceries, might not have intended to head butt his wife as football and send her to early grave, since there is no record that he has ever engaged in the thrilling game but he ended up killing his wife with a powerful head butt that got her wife off her feet before hitting her on the ground with a chattering sound.

She could not recover from the fall despite spirited efforts to revive her. Unlike football, she could not bounce back and her killer husband could not lob her up as a star striker in the mold of Didier Drogba would have done on the turf.

On the fateful day in question, both Daniel and Rose had woken up and prepared their children for the school, while they left for their respective business places not suspecting any foul play or imminent danger.

At the end of the day’s business, the wife returned home, attended to the children and prepared to go to bed just before midnight, when a man, Mr. Eknagbo Agban, desperately slammed on her door to wake up and sell Garri- a local staple- to him.

She could not resist the customer, whom many in the neighbourhood say has been going to buy foodstuffs from the same house at late hours.

As if it was planned by fate, the coming of Agban, 20, to buy garri coincided with the arrival of Eyam in the house. He did not ask who the man was but had taken offence over the audacity of the man to visit his house at that odd hour of the night, not minding the purpose. Rather than enter his house and ascertain from his wife and children the purpose of the late visitor, Eyam decided to sleep out that night.

Apparently irked also that her husband did not return to the house but slept elsewhere, Rose was filled with rage that Eyam was up to something. When the two met in the morning, it was an exchange of animosity rather than the expression of love and happiness that they are used to.

“Who was that idiot who came to this house late last night?” an enraged Eyam, queried the wife. Without suspecting that the man had been filled with searing anger, the wife, fired back, “Where did you go last night?

Eyam, who felt unduly challenged by his wife, jumped up apparently to prove his manhood and authority over the feeble woman. “Why do you talk to me like that?”, he bellowed before hitting the wife with his curly head.

The resultant head butt lifted the wife above the ground and hit the ground. She gasped for breath, foamed in the mouth and rolled helplessly for minutes before breathing her last. “He has killed me,” she screamed with her last breath.

Although the woman was rushed to the IkomEkpupa Health Clinic, she was dead before reaching the gate of the health institution.

Eyam, who has since been arrested by the police for murdering his wife, is reported to have complained that Agban had some other motives other than buying garri from his late wife. He was suspicious that his wife might have had an affair with the 20-year-old man but the children insist that the man had never gone beyond buying foodstuff from their late mother. However, the police would want the suspect to clear himself of murder in court.

Already, the police have arrested and dragged Eyam before the Magistrate court 1 in Calabar to advance reasons why should not pay dearly for he killing his wife over unsubstantiated claim that Agban had some illicit affair with the deceased. After arraigning him, the court ordered the suspect to be remanded at the Ikom Prisons pending trial because of the weight of the matter.

It is not clear if Eyam would have been able to score a goal and win a trophy the way he struck his wife of many years to death with a powerful head butt. He may spend the rest of his life in jail or pay with his life if found guilty of the offence. The days ahead will prove his fate that has carelessly been handed over to uncertainty because of a jealous rage.