THE AROWOLOS' TRAGEDY: HOW TITILAYO OMOZEDE WAS MURDERED BY HUSBAND

Justice Lateefat Okunnu of the Ikeja High Court, on Friday, 21 February 2014, convicted Akolade Arowolo who murdered his wife, Titilayo Omozeje, at their Isolo residence in 2011. In sentencing Arowolo to death, the judge said that the prosecution proved their case beyond reasonable doubt and established that the defendant was responsible for his wife’s death.

Justice Okunnu said that she reached her verdict by relying on the evidences of the pathologist who conducted a post-mortem examination on the deceased’s corpse, the parents of the convict who were “not witnesses of truth”, and the contradictory statements of the convict. She also relied on the “Doctrine of the Last Scene” which stipulates that the last person at a crime scene bears full responsibility for the deceased.

“It serves to buttress the finding that the defendant and no one else is the culprit,” Mrs. Okunnu added. As the judge pronounced her sentence, Arowolo fell in the dock and burst into tears, screaming “who would take care of my little daughter?”

For three years, Arowolo has become a cause celebre for allegedly stabbing his wife to death. The Arowolos’ tragedy was one that generated so much out-cry from the public. When the news of the savage attack on the Titilayo broke on 24 June 2011, The ELITES reporter had visited the Arowolos’ residence, to speak with some of their neighbours and officers of the Aswani Police Station.

Interestingly too, the first time Arowolo was paraded by the Nigerian police, his face betrayed no hint of the savagery he had been accused of. He even appeared with a bible. His hands, however, bore suggestions of involvement in some sort of violence. The left hand was plastered. So was the region below his right elbow. Arowolo’s explanation for the wounds was that his wife had stabbed him–and then stabbed herself.

 “The woman was possessed that day and while we were quarreling, she went into the kitchen and brought out a knife, with which she overpowered me and then began to stab me all over my body and head. The next thing I saw, she started stabbing herself repeatedly with the knife while telling me that she was tired of the marriage and that since I did not want to let her go, she would kill me and then kill herself,” Arowolo claimed.

This version of events is not popular with his in-laws and many of those familiar with the couple. Those familiar with Arowolo and his wife, Titilayo, said their marriage was a strife-driven one. And on a regular basis, Arowolo battered his wife. Arowolo admitted that the marriage was a tempestuous one. “We have been having issues since the day we got married, so much so that I contemplated divorcing her. But because I am a spiritual person and a pastor, I decided to manage. I am now regretting that decision because I should have been bold enough to divorce her and then face the consequences instead of this mess I have found myself,” he added.

Arowolo claimed he did not plan to marry Titilayo. According to him, he had planned to marry another person he was dating at the same time. Titilayo, he claimed, got pregnant and her family pressured them into marriage. His claims hardly fit the profile of a spiritual man. Titilayo, a 2006 History and International Relations graduate of Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, worked with Skye Bank plc. She was said to be the family’s breadwinner and paid N1.3 million for the flat they lived in, as the husband had not worked for about two of the three years they were married. 

For Titilayo, the day, June 24, was incidentally her husband’s birthday and the beginning of her annual leave. She left their home at 8 Dr. Akindehinde Street, Aswani Estate, Isolo, Lagos, for her office. Titilayo was in the office to collect her leave grant, which was said to be N250,000. About two hours later, she returned home and was said to have explained to her husband that the money had been paid into her account, but she would have to wait till the following week before she could withdraw it.

What set off the dispute that claimed her life remains unclear, but sources disclosed that Arowolo, who once worked with an audit firm, depended solely on his wife for money and usually insisted that the wife met his demand. It was also gathered that after Arowolo allegedly killed his wife, he fled their apartment and drove away in his wife’s car, a green Honda Accord 1996 model, with registration number Lagos RK 129 KJ. He was said to have driven at a crazy speed. But as Arowolo approached Aye Bus Stop, some policemen stopped him and ordered him out of the car. When they saw blood stains on him, they thought that he was involved in an accident. But when they started asking him questions, said police sources, Arowolo feigned weakness and slumped. As the policemen and onlookers made efforts to revive him, he got up, jumped on a coming motorcycle, which sped off.

The policemen took the car to their station. A close observation revealed that the door at the driver’s side had a dent while the right headlamp was broken. Officers at the Aswani Police Station disclosed that it was not until the day after Arowolo’s car was impounded that the station was alerted of the murder that had taken place a few streets away.

Police officers informed this reporter that after Arowolo escaped at Aye Bus Stop, he went to one of his father’s friends in Ejigbo and reported that he had a fight with his wife. His father was then informed of the incident. The family then decided to send a delegation to Arowolo’s house to check on Titilayo. When members of the delegation got to the apartment, they discovered that the door was locked. But with the help of the neighbours, they broke the door and found Titilayo’s body with multiple stab wounds.

“Titilayo was stabbed severally in her face, chest and neck. I couldn’t even bring myself to look at the pictures the other neighbours took with their phones,” said a neighbour.  Arowolo’s father, Mudashiru, was then arrested and detained at the Aswani Police Station. Three days later, his relatives brought Arowolo to the station. He was detained for a few days, after which he was transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID, Panti.

Dr. Akindehinde Street is quite popular within Isolo community. It houses Holy Saviour’s College, a notable secondary school as well as Saviour’s Gospel Ministry, a popular church. The Arowolos lived on No 8, a three storey building which is described as the newest and the most beautiful on that street. The building has 24 flats. The Arowolos, who were said to have moved in eight months before the tragic incident, occupied the back flat on the last floor.

One of the neigbours who claimed to know the couple described their marriage as being very chaotic. “They quarreled a lot. It was obvious that the man never loved his wife because he was always beating her. A few months ago, he beat her so much that she had to leave her matrimonial home. But she came back after family members intervened and pleaded with her to come back”, he said.

Another neighbour, who runs a barbing salon opposite the Arowolos’ house, claimed to have interacted closely with Arowolo, described him as strange. “He was always at home. Once, when he came to my shop, I asked what he did for a living and he said he was an auditor. I asked him where his office was and he told me he ran his business from home. I had no reason to doubt him because he claimed to be a born-again Christian,” he said.

A mate of his at Federal Government College, Ijanikin, said he once attempted to kill himself by drinking bleach. If he actually killed his wife, what could have sparked such a murderous reaction?  A psychologist explained to this reporter that: “Killing one’s spouse could be a consequence of anger and overreaction. It could be consequent upon jealous frustration, which leads to aggression, hate, madness, e.g. manic depressive psychosis or even personality disorder. A wife is part of the self and to kill a wife is to kill self and that may imply that death instinct has overshadowed life instinct. Frustration can emanate from longtime misbehaviour of wife either through nagging, extramarital affairs and depriving the husband of sex. Hate may also emanate from that.”

Arowolo, on the evidence of his Facebook page (it was later shut down), is a religious man. His status updates regularly displayed quotations from the Bible. Those who knew him as an undergraduate at the University of Lagos said he was heavily involved in church activities and was elected hall pastor in his final year. Arowolo served as a pastor in the children’s department at a parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God.

But the family of Titilayo claimed that Arowolo might have murdered his wife for ritual purposes. Speaking through its lawyer, Nelson Ekoh, the family alleged that one of Titilayo’s internal organs was found at the scene of the incident. Ekoh claimed that the deceased was stabbed more than 20 times. “Arowolo used two knives and a hammer to kill Titilayo. One knife broke in her neck, while the other one was left near her corpse. I believe he pinned her down to the floor and stabbed her to death after which he took out some of her internal organs. I suspect that he wanted to use Titilayo for a ritual. An internal organ was found on the floor, her eyes almost gouged out and there are so many stab wounds on her body,” he said.

A family source, who claimed to be the younger sister of Titilayo’s stepmother, said the family is determined to fight for justice. The late Titilayo, who left behind a daughter, Olamide, became motherless at the age of nine. She was raised by her step-mother, Bisi and father, George Oyakhire, a senior employee of the Nigeria Customs Service.

Close friends of Titilayo described her as very gentle and kind. One of them disclosed that the late banker always expressed her frustration with her marriage to Arowolo. “Few months before her death, Titilayo complained that she was tired of being beaten by her husband. A few weeks before she died, they fought over Arowolo’s decision to sell her car without her permission. He beat her up. This caused her to move out of the house. But Arowolo came begging and asked her to come back home. The matter was resolved but Titilayo’s father pleaded with her not to go back yet,” she said. The remains of the late banker were later interred at Atan Cemetery, Yaba, amidst tears and sorrow.