Landlord in police net

Tragedy struck at Kadiri Avenue, Oluwo Agbado area of Ogun State when a 40-year-old housewife, Folake Akinola, died after allegedly being hit on the head by her landlord, Tunde Alabi, during a scuffle between the landlord and the husband of the deceased, Deinde Adelabi.

Alabi, an auto mechanic, who allegedly hit Akinola with a plank with nails on the head, also reportedly hit Adelabi in the face, but the latter was lucky to escape with deep wounds to his head.

The housewife was said to have died from excessive bleeding after the landlord, who is now in detention at the Ogun State Police Command Headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta, where he is awaiting prosecution, hit the young woman on the head, sinking several nails into her skull.

Neighbours told Crime Digest that the nails penetrated Akinola’s skull in such manner that resulted in excessive bleeding.

The deceased, who was said to have been rejected in three hospitals, eventually died six hours later at the Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta, the state capital.

The landlord’s trouble appears to be in legion as other tenants in his house contended that Alabi was at loggerheads with his neighbours, as he seemed to derive joy in terrorising his tenants and neighbours.

Some tenants alleged that the landlord, who drank alcoholic heavily, also smoked Indian hemp.

The embattled landlord, however, claimed he never intended to hit the woman with the plank, but the husband. Alabi told Crime Digest in his cell at the State Criminal Investigation Department, that he was leaving for work when the deceased’s husband confronted him and accused him of being responsible for an attack on him (Adelabi) the previous day.

“He said I was the one that sent some boys to attack and beat him up at the church. He started beating me and I fell down. His wife came out and they poured water on me. I stood up and discovered there was blood in my neck; that was when I took a stick and chased them with it because they were both running at that time. I threw it at them not knowing it would knock the wife down,” Alabi said.

The 18-year-old daughter of the deceased, Bamidele Oluwakemi, gave a different version of the incident. She said her mother was trying to drag her husband away from the landlord after the latter had hit her step-father with a stick when Alabi hit the woman with a dismantled furniture plank in the head.

She said, “It was around 6 am when a loud noise woke me up; I heard my stepfather’s voice and the landlord’s. So, I went outside and saw my mum trying to hold her husband, separating him from the landlord. Before we knew what was happening, the landlord turned round and picked a dismantled furniture with several nails on it, and hit my mother with it on the head.”

The deceased’s daughter said that the plank he hit on the woman’s head belonged to a tenant, who recently moved out of the house as a result of the beating she received from the landlord despite the fact that the woman was pregnant.

Adelabi alleged that he was attacked at his wife’s church by some boys who had earlier had a misunderstanding with the church pastor, saying the assailants must have thought he was the pastor of the church.

He said the hoodlums beat him up and later burnt down the church, alleging that the pronouncements of the landlord gave him up as the brains behind the attack.

He said, “On Friday after we had an argument, we started fighting and he took a stick and hit me here (where my face is bandaged). My wife came and quickly held me because she knew what would follow. This man took another stick with nails and hit my wife on the head all because she shouted at him for hitting me with a stick on the face. My wife was rushed to three different hospitals where she was rejected because she had bled so much and she later died at FMC, Abeokuta.

“I am the one that has been settling disputes between him and other tenants, and on several occasions, I held meetings with the tenants and advised them to ignore the man whenever he started his trouble because he had the habit of raining curses on all of us.”

The Police Public Relations Officer of the state police command, Mr. Olumuyiwa Adejobi, who confirmed the story, said the suspect would soon be arraigned in court.
Source:punchng.com