A
police corporal, Lucky Ikharia, used a bus to
crush the legs of his wife, Dupe. Having left her for dead, Lucky went
home where he allegedly stabbed his baby, David, to death, ripping out
the toddler’s intestines.
Still in a rage, the policeman turned the knife on himself in an attempt to take his own life.
Lucky, Dupe and their baby
PUNCH
reports that the incident occurred at the family’s rented apartment in
Kale Close, Mafoluku, Oshodi last week. Lucky and his wife survived but
both are currently in critical conditions.
Four days prior to the incident, 34-year-old Lucky, who hails from Sabon
Gida Ora, Edo State, had a quarrel with his wife, Dupe over N2,000,
after which he reportedly sent her packing. The policeman,
who is attached to the Makinde Police Division,
Oshodi, Lagos had also ‘seized’ their only child from Dupe as a means of
‘punishing’ her.
Around 8pm on the day of the attack, Dupe, a 30-year-old indigene of
Abeokuta, Ogun State, was heading for her mother’s house in Mushin
unknown to her that Lucky was waiting in a bus to attack her. It was
learnt that on getting to Olorunshogo junction, Lucky pursued his wife
with the bus, crushing her legs in the process. Leaving her for dead,
Lucky was said to have fled the scene while passersby initially thought
the attack was random.
However, after Dupe was rushed to a nearby hospital on same evening for
treatment and had regained consciousness the following morning, she
explained that the man who drove the bus which crushed her legs was her
own husband.
Unknown to Dupe, after her husband attacked her, he reportedly drove
back to their apartment where he stabbed their child, David, in the
belly, before fleeing the residence.
Lucky’s co-tenants and Dupe’s relatives who discovered the baby’s corpse
on Friday morning, reported the incident at the Akinpelu Police
Division. It was also gathered that the knife and the bus had both been
recovered.
When PUNCH Metro visited the hospital where Dupe was receiving treatment
on Monday, the woman, who could hardly speak. She said the cause of the
fight was a sum of N2000 which Lucky claimed she stole.
She said:
“We got married and started living together around October 2013. We
usually had quarrels and that was not the first time he would beat me
up, and send me out of the house. But this incident started on Sunday,
October 26.
Lucky had initially kept N15,000 with me. Then, on Sunday, he collected
N5, 000 to repair the bus. Later I gave him the rest, only to realise it
was N8, 000. So, he began to question where I kept the remaining N2000.
But I knew that it was his nature to stir up trouble because he had a
habit of keeping money with me and going again to take it.
So, we began to fight, and he asked me to leave the house. He did not
allow me to take the child with me that day. I was sleeping in friends’
places until Thursday when I decided to go back home. I did not find my
baby, and when I asked him, he threatened that if he met me in the house
by evening, he would kill me, kill the baby and himself.”
Dupe said she was then called by her mother to come to their family
house in Mushin, adding that as she got on her way, and was at the
Olorunshogo junction, a commercial bus swerved to her path and hit her
several times.
She said:
“The commercial bus was his bus. He was the only man inside. He hit me
and I fell. Then he reversed and came over my legs again. I lost
consciousness. That was the last thing I knew.”
PUNCH learnt from one of the nurses that Dupe might be admitted in the
hospital for about two months and might spend over N600,000 for
treatment owing to the severity of the attack.
One of Dupe’s relatives, Mr. Segun Akiode, said the family had yet to
inform Dupe of her son’s death. He added that the family also did not
know Lucky’s whereabouts. He said:
“I was called on the phone on Thursday evening that my sister was
knocked down at Olorunshogo junction. When I got there, I met her in a
pool of blood. So, we rushed her to a hospital. It was already around
9.30pm.
On Friday, when we went to their apartment, we found the baby boy,
stabbed in the belly and already dead on the floor. We have not told
Dupe about his death yet. So, we went to report at the Akinpelu Police
Division, and we were asked to describe the bus which hit Dupe. When we
did, they said the bus was with them in the station, but the whereabouts
of Lucky were still unknown.”
When PUNCH got to the couple’s rented apartment in Kale Close, Mafoluku,
it was learnt from neighbours that Lucky had not been seen at home
since the day of incident. At the Makinde Division, a police source said
the suspect was one of the patrol van drivers, but he had not come to
work since the day of the incident.
The source added that Lucky, who was believed to have also stabbed himself, was in an undisclosed hospital receiving treatment.
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Kenneth Nwosu, when
contacted promised to get back on the matter, but he had yet to do so
as of press time. Meanwhile, PUNCH Metro learnt that the corpse of the
baby had been deposited at a morgue in Yaba, Lagos.
