TRAGEDY struck on Ediba Road, Calabar, the Cross River State capital, about three days ago, when a man allegedly beat his pregnant wife to death.
The man, Solomon Ogbeide, a retired Army officer who hails from Edo State, was said to have been enraged by the refusal of his late wife, Esther Essien, to use her cell phone.
The late Esther who hailed from Akwa Ibom State and a mother of three, was said to be five months pregnant.
Our correspondent learnt from the daughter of the deceased, Ruth, who said she witnessed the incident, that the whole thing started about 7a.m. on Sunday.
Ogbeide, her step-father, had allegedly demanded for the deceased’s cell phone, which she was using at the moment.
When she refused, he allegedly snatched it from her, “and when she expressed her displeasure, he started raining insults on her and her parents”.
Ruth added: “While he was still cursing, she left for the kitchen. He quickly followed her into the kitchen and dealt her a deadly blow to the head with a pestle.”
The single blow was devastating enough to snuff the life out of the 32-year-old woman. Before anything could be done to help her, she gave up the ghost.
The late Esther’s uncle, Dede Odo Uwa, said on the day of the incident, he got a distress call from her brother in Calabar, adding that he had to rush down from Ikot Osurua, Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State to Calabar to meet his niece’s dead body.
Expressing his pain, he said: “The man (Ogbeide) was not even married to her. Not even a sachet of hot drink has been presented to the family, not to talk of any member of our family paying our late sister a visit.”
Neighbours of the deceased told our reporter that her relationship with her husband, said to be always abusing her, had always been marked by violent confrontations.
Solomon, who reported himself at the State Housing Estate Police Station, Calabar, after the incident, was alleged to have murdered his first son in his hometown before relocating to the Cross River State capital, where he was living with the deceased before her death.
It was also learnt that when the deceased requested that Ogbeide take her to his hometown, he vehemently refused.
Efforts to speak with the state police spokesman, Etim Dickson, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), proved futile.
Meanwhile, the remains of the late Esther have been deposited in the mortuary, while Ogbeide is in detention at the State Police Headquarters, Diamond Hill, Calabar.
By Nicholas Kalu, Calabar
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