• Deceased’s family turns to court for reprieve, as husband maintains innocence
By Funke Busari
On October 13, 2022, Mrs Abimbola Ogbonna, nee Martins, a 35-year-old mother of five, died in her home at Awobode Abiodun Street, Megamund Estate, Lekki, Ajah, Lagos, as a result of burns she sustained in a fire incident at home.
Her death has since generated so many twists, because of what some tagged the alleged complicity of her husband, Mr. Ikechukwu Darly Ogbonna, a man she was married to for 15 years.
The deceased’s husband, Ogbonna, has, however, insisted he was innocent and was not in any way involved in his wife’s death.
Since the incident, the family of the deceased and that of the husband have been at loggerheads.
A legal battle has also been launched by the family of Abimbola to ensure 37-year-old Ikechukwu Ogbonna, a popular auto dealer, is properly arraigned for murder. In the same vein, Ogbonna’s relatives are seeking freedom for the man, who they insist is innocent.
While Ogbona and his relatives have continued to maintain his innocence, there have also been counter-claims that the deceased caused her own death, and that the authorities should allow the husband go scot-free.
This imbroglio has led to accusations and counter accusations online and offline, particularly as legal arsenals are being employed to “bring the husband to book,” or to “get him off the hook.”
Already, the Lagos State Government has activated a coroner’s inquest to probe the deceased’s death of Abimbola Ogboona.
The State Attorney and Commissioner of Justice, Moyosore Onigbanjo, SAN said a coroner’s inquest has immediately been requested, in line with Section 14 and 15 of the Coroners’ Systems Law, Laws of Lagos State 2015, to determine the cause and circumstances of her death.
Section 14(1)(d) of the Coroners’ System Law of the State stipulates that “a report of death shall be made to any of the agencies for the report of death or the office of the Coroner and be subject to post-mortem examination where there is reasonable cause to believe that the cause of death was: violent, unnatural or suspicious.”
Section 15(1) and (9) further enjoin the Coroner to hold an inquest whenever he or she is informed that the death of the deceased person was in a violent, unnatural or suspicious situation or believes an inquest is desirable following the report of a reportable death.
On her part, the bereaved mother of late Abimbola, Mrs. Ebele Martins is insisting that her daughter suffered and died of aggravated domestic violence in the hands of the husband.
In October last year, the deceased had written a petition to Assistant Inspector General of Police Zone 2 Headquarters, Onikan, Lagos. In the petition, she asserted that she had been a victim of domestic violence in her 15 years of marriage to Ogbonna. She cited many instances of abuse and assault and called on the police authorities to intervene.
The petition partly reads: “For the past 15 years I have been married to Ikechukwu Ogbonna, I with my children have not seen peace with him, everyday is a hell to me and my children. Sir, it is pertinent to state here that the said Ikechukwu beat me all the time like a baby slave, as if my family used me to borrow money from him. When I open my cloth sir and show my body to you, it is incomplete body with wounds and injuries all over sustained from the beating maltreatment I received from him every day.
“Some few weeks ago, he brought out his gun and threatened to shoot me, I was saved with the help of my Estate neighbour.
“I reported this incident at Ajah Police Station and the police invited him, but he refused to report and all at the police station, including the DPO, worship him.
“Anytime there is misunderstanding between me and him, he always breaks bottles on me or he will go for a knife and cut me with it.
“I urge you sir to use your good offices to wade into this matter by recovering the gun he uses in threatening me and bring him to book for justice to prevail.”
Following her death in what has now been generating mixed reactions, the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA) stepped in. The agency’s Head, Case Management Department, Mrs. Tumininu Oni coordinated the investigation.
In a report on October 21, 2022, the agency established an alleged case of domestic violence against the husband of Mrs Abimbola, whose five children are aged 14, 12, 7, 5 and 3. The agency said she was rescued following a distress call to its office at around 5:24 pm on September 6, 2022.
According to the agency, Mrs. Ogbonna visited the office on September 12 to report that Mr. Ogbonna repeatedly physically, verbally, and emotionally abused her.
Oni claimed: “As a result of her disclosures, Mrs. Abimbola Bobby Ogbonna was referred to the agency’s in-house psychologist, who happens to be a consultant psychiatrist. She was also assigned a lawyer to assist in filing for a restraining order.
“Upon the receipt of complaint, the DSVA, in an effort to increase safety of Abimbola and reduce the commission of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, referred her to the Divisional Police Officer, Ajah for further assistance because the deceased had told the agency about an argument that ensued between the couple and later resulted to physical abuse on her at their residence. This situation was alleged to have occurred repeatedly over 11 years.”
The agency further said that on the strength of her allegations, the agency’s Gender Based Violence Case Manager, Akinkunle A. Orisajobi to report the allegations levied against Mr. Ogbonna to the police.
“The reason is not unconnected with the fact that criminal allegations require the intervention of the police, in order that the case be investigated and ensure justice is served on the offender, as offences of domestic violence and physical assault is contrary to the Protection against Domestic Violence Law and the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015,” she noted.
Mrs Oni further said: ”On the 4th of October, 2022, Mrs. Ogbonna went back to the station in the company of her mother, where she was said to have informed the Officer in charge of the Family Support Unit, Ajiwe in Ajah of her intention to transfer the case to Zone 2.
“The DSVA personnel stated that she continued to remain in contact with Mrs. Ogbonna, and was later told that she had incidented the case at Zone 2 and she was encouraged to access psycho social support/counselling from a government recommended facility.”
But these interventions seemed to be fruitless as news thereafter broke out that Bimbo Ogboona had set herself ablaze. But her family would have none of such stories. Her mother has since been making efforts to get justice for her daughter. The family has since engaged a legal practitioner, Mr. Odiana Eriata, Esq., in an effort to get justice for the deceased.
Mrs. Martins had expressed displeasure at the handling of the case by the Police. She alleged a cover-up in the way and manner the Police was handling the case, especially as her late daughter’s husband was charged for negligence at a magistrate’s court.
The charge against the suspect, as cited by Saturday Sun, stated: “That you, Ikechukwu Ogbonna, male, on the 13th day of October, 2022 about 1700 hours, at Megamund Estate, Ajah, Lagos in the Lagos Magisterial District did negligently fail to prevent one Abimbola Ogbonna, female, from setting herself ablaze, a duty you owe her as husband and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 252 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.”
Ogbonna was thereafter arraigned before a Magistrate court in Lagos. But now, the charge has been changed to involuntary manslaughter, following series of moves by the family of the deceased.
Mrs. Martins had appealed to the Lagos State Government and the office of the Directorate of Public Prosecution, to review the case of the deceased and ensure proper charge was preferred against anyone found culpable in the circumstances leading to the death of Mrs. Ogbonna. She said she suspected foul play in the death of her daughter.
She claimed she is acquitted with the facts and knowledge of the series of domestic abuse and violence meted out to her daughter by the husband before her death on October 15.
Last December, Mrs. Martins had sent a save-our-soul to Dr. Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, wife of Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, asking for intervention in the case.
In her message to the Lagos First Lady, the deceased’s mother said late Mrs. Abimbola Ogbonna suffered severe domestic violence and abuse in the hands of her husband before her untimely death, adding that the incidents of abuse and domestic violence were reported to the authorities.
She had said that she and her daughter reported the matter of persistent threat to life, abuse and violence before the unfortunate incident, and were further directed to report the matter at Zone 2 Police Command Headquarters, Onikan, Lagos.
Her words: “The family immediately reported the matter to Zone 2. At Zone 2, I was asked to write a petition to the AIG. I wrote to AIG and my petition was approved.
“After approval, the police were planning to arrest Ikechukwu. Then I was called that Ikechukwu had killed my daughter and I immediately rushed to Ajah. On my way, I was told that she was being taken to the hospital. I was told that they had taken my daughter to six different hospitals and she was rejected but was fortunate to be admitted at Gbagada General Hospital. After three days, she was transferred to Igbobi Orthopaedic Hospital. After three days she gave up. At that point that Bimbo was trying to pack her things out of the house, her husband Mr. Ikechukwu set her ablaze as a result of her taking the documents of the house they own away.”
But Mr. Ogbonna has maintained his innocence and denied complicity in the matter. , he told Fire Service and Police investigators during investigations that there was a fire incident in his home about 4:30 pm on October 13, 2022.
Oshodi Oyebola, Head of investigation/Research in a report on the fire incident, recounted the narration of Ogbonna about the fire incident.
“On that fateful day, he was returning home and caught his wife (deceased) and one iron bender cutting off his German safe, thinking his wife thought that he had dollars stored in the safe, but met only his sensitive document. So, in the course of this, the iron bender ran away and his wife started scattering the whole house, breaking the glass fitted windows, threatening she was going to kill herself because of children’ school fees that he had not been able to complete (which he had already promised the school management that he was going to pay in a week’s time.) But due to emotional defect, she could not wait for him to get the money for the school fees. More so, she set the house on fire which burnt the curtains and POP edge and later quenched the fire by herself. Ogbonna said he thought it was going to happen like in the past, while watching his wife wetting herself with kerosene, though she had done more life threatening things in the past, until he saw and heard her calling “honey”, please help me? Fire, don’t let me die”.
“Regrettably, carrying her into their swimming pool located at the back of their building which made the fire to stop and later rushed her to the hospital through which he also sustained first degree burn on his hand.
“Unfortunately, he had to drop on their way to the hospital due to the fact that he forgot his ATM card and his phone. He was told that his wife was rejected in two different hospitals, before she gave up the ghost along the line.”
Investigators also noted that there were other occupants in the house as at the time of the incident, apart from the husband and their children.
The report of the investigation by the Fire Service submitted to the Police concluded thus:
“Our research shows that there was a fire outbreak which burnt two curtains in their sitting room. There was a left over kerosene inside a plastic bottle on the floor of their entrance which gave a clear indication that the deceased rubbed herself with kerosene.”
The mother of the deceased has also told investigators that their marital problems could be traced to a woman behind the scene.
She claimed: “When the couple went to South Africa, then they had three kids. Meanwhile, the husband secretly lodged a South African woman in Eko Hotel upon return. Afterward, the South African woman started sending Abimbola pictures of a baby boy she had for her husband. This has led to an unrest situation with her husband whereby Mr. Ogbonna started maltreating his wife in an unbearable manner which prompted Mrs. Martins to write a petition to the authorities to separate her daughter from the violence relationship.”
It was also gathered that Bimbo had planned to pack out her belongings inside her car on the day of the incident, when the husband came and collected the car key.
When this reporter made attempts to verify with Ikechukwu Ogbonna, the man at the centre of the allegations, he did not pick his calls.
When his lawyer, Abubakar Yesufu, was contacted, he confirmed that Ogbonna had been granted bail pending arraignment and that he was actually released from the correctional centre on March 7, 2023.
For now, both parties are looking up to the Judiciary for succour, even as the Lagos State Ministry of Justice has promised to ensure that justice is served in the matter.