Last Thursday morning at Gbagidi, Ijanikin area of Lagos State, a housewife known as Iya Deborah, reportedly emptied a bowl of hot water on her husband, identified as Ajagadi.
Iya Deborah had complained bitterly after her husband gave her N700, out of the N800 he had, to prepare yam and sauce breakfast for the family. She bought the yam, but emptied the boiling water on her husband, who was fiddling with his phone in the sitting room, waiting for his meal.
The couple have been married for eight years, has four children, including a six-month-old baby.
A neighbour said: “I was in front of the compound when I heard the victim screaming and his wife running out of the compound as if the devil was chasing her. Neighbours who were still in the compound ran into their apartment only to see him in pains.
“When we asked him what happened, he said his wife poured hot water on him. We bought raw eggs and honey which we poured on the burns, before taking him to the hospital.”
Angry neighbours later caught Iya Deborah, and dragged her to the hospital.
When reporters visited the victim at Ademola Hospital, he was still writhing in pains from burns and blisters on his chest, face, right hand, and lap.
‘It’s the devil’
A nurse who spoke on condition of anonymity said: “When the wife of the victim came to the hospital, she kept saying that she did it because the money her husband gave to her was too little.
She alleged that he has been cheating on her with other women and keeps complaining that there was no money, but keeps spending on his lovers.
Feeling a lot more remorseful, Iya Deborah, who is currently undergoing interrogation at Ijanikin Police Divisional Headquarters, said: “I don’t know what came over me; it is the devil’s handiwork.”
Vanguard gathered that the suspect once attacked a neighbour in their former compound with hot groundnut oil.
