Saratu (Inset: Uwagbe and Saratu)

 

Saratu, the wife of a retired Brigadier-General, Umar Uwagbe, who was allegedly murdered by men he leased a piece of land to, has regretted that her husband’s generosity “backfired”.

Uwagbe had leased the land to his neighbour, Samuel Sosu, for commercial farming but due to breach of agreement, and the general asked Sosu to vacate the land.

Saratu, who gave a graphic detail of how her 67-year-old husband was murdered, said, “What I can remember before the ugly incident is that one of our neighbours, Samuel Sosu, came to my late husband to seek his permission to farm on our piece of land.

“My late husband, out of his generous heart, agreed but told him (Sosu) that he must obey certain rules before he could agree they both signed an agreement.

“But Sosu didn’t obey these rules. Consequently, after the first harvest season, we asked (Sosu) to leave.

“Sosu asked my late husband to refund the money he used in clearing the land. He said he did not make money while farming on the land. But we told him to leave nonetheless because he had breached the terms of our agreement

“Some few weeks later, Sosu came to our house on a Sunday with two chickens to plead with my husband but we rejected the chickens and told him to leave.”

Although Saratu recalled Sosu did not say a word, he however had a devilish plan. It was gathered that he co-opted his apprentice, Abiodun Sosube (Dongo) and an unidentified hoodlum to murder the general.

Saratu said, “On Tuesday, September 9, 2011, I sent one of my daughters to get me a recharge card while my late husband went out to the backyard to turn off the generator. I suddenly heard a scream  and shouts of ‘blood of Jesus’ twice.

 “This made me and my two granddaughters to rush downstairs to the direction of the scream. On getting there, we saw two men using a machete on my husband repeatedly.”

“I quickly carried my granddaughters and rushed inside the house to call my daughter not to come back home because some men were out to kill us. I also called men of the Nigerian Army and the police.

PUNCH METRO learnt that after the hoodlums had killed Uwagbe, they sensed that someone had seen them and went into the apartment.

She added, “While telling my granddaughters to go and hide, I was sighted by the two men and they came running after me. They slashed me all over with their matchetes. The first machete mark was behind my neck, while others were on my head and left hand. It was then I saw Dongo. I asked him why he wanted to kill us

“It was while they wanted to inflict another injury on me that I pretended to be dead, in order for them to leave me. When they thought I had died, they left.”

Saratu, said after the hoodlums had left, soldiers came to her rescue and immediately rushed her to a hospital.

Her granddaughter, on sighting her (Saratu) and her husband in a pool of blood suffered a shock and died a week after.

“My 17-year-old-granddaughter died from shock a week after seeing me and my husband being butchered,” she said.

Sosu and Dongo have been arrested and are at the State Criminal Investigation Department. One suspect is at large.

When paraded by the police, Sosube admitted committing the crime but Sosu denied any complicity.

“I did not send Sosube (Dongo) to go and kill the ex-general. The ex-general was a very nice man to me and I was not even at the murder scene. I am being framed,” Sosu said.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Lagos State Command, Mr. Samuel Jinadu, said the suspects were illegal immigrants from Benin Republic. He added that they would soon be charged to court.

While expressing gratitude to the police and soldiers from 242 Battalion, Badagry, Saratu advised authorities to check the influx of illegal aliens into the country.

-Punch

Posted by admin on Dec 18 2011. Filed under Armed Forces, Headlines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry