Man escapes after killing wife with axe in Benue

A truck driver has been declared wanted by the police in Benue State for allegedly killing his wife to death with an axe. 
 

The Benue State Police Command has launched a manhunt for a truck driver, Joshua Terkaa Ushir, who escaped through the window after hacking his wife, Lucy Wasem, to death with an axe.

Daily Post reports that the suspect had accused his wife of adultery several times and had vowed to kill her and himself and that they were always quarreling and fighting over unresolved domestic issues.

The father of the 29-year-old deceased, Daniel Akighir, who spoke to newsmen on the murder of his daughter, accused his son-in-law of killing his daughter without any provocation.

While speaking on the incident, the sorrowful father said:

“Last week Friday, my son-in-law, Mr. Terkaa of Joseph Tia street, Gboko North, and his wife [my late daughter], came to my house for counseling and settlement over their matrimonial disputes, but after a long discussion, my daughter refused to return to her husband’s house.

According to her, she refused to return because of the husband’s recent odd behavior and imminent threat to her life.

On Sunday, my daughter, Lucy, came back from morning mass and told us, me and her mother, that her husband invited her for settlement and we were glad since it was our desire for them reunite.”

The 69-year-old Akighir, however, said he later heard from neighbours that Ushir had lured his daughter indoors, locked the door and started beating her and later used an axe to hack her to death.

“An eyewitnesses told me that on reaching the house, her husband locked her in their one room apartment, beat, strangled and axed my daughter to death.

All efforts by neighbours to save my daughter proved abortive as the door was locked and after he confirmed that his wife was dead, he escaped through the back window.

After several attempts, the door was forced open only to discover the lifeless body of my daughter under the mattress with deep cuts on her neck and head in the pool of her blood. Two axes and a hammer were found in the room stained with blood,” the bereaved father said.

A neighbour of the couple at their house on Joseph Tyagh Street, Adekaa, Gboko, Aga-Samuel Barti, narrated that the couple had engaged in a quarrel for about three hours on the day of the incident.

“Before this incident, the family had been going through some issues. Last week Thursday, around 2 am, I got a call to bring my car to pick the man. I was told he was dead.

When I got to their apartment, I discovered that he actually collapsed. We rushed him to a hospital where he was resuscitated.

The wife later told me that the husband woke up and claimed he saw two cats at their door, summoning him. She said he suddenly passed out. I told them to be prayerful.

Eventually, the woman ran away from the house. She started telling people that her husband was saying some people asked him to bring blood. She took their two children to her sister’s place and did not return.

She showed up at the house again on Sunday afternoon. She was alone with the husband in the house when they had an argument.

As neighbours, we thought it was their usual disagreement because they always fought like that. But it went on for about three hours.

Later, the argument degenerated into a fight but no one could access the apartment because the door had been locked.

The noise later stopped and we all thought that the issue had been resolved as usual but when nobody came out of the room, we had suspicions and broke the door.

That was when we saw the woman in a pool of blood with a gash in her neck. The window at the back of the room was wide open and the man had disappeared,” Barti said.

Barti added that before the incident, Urshi had often accused the wife of maintaining an extramarital affair, saying that it was the reason for their constant argument.

Confirming the incident, the State Police Public Relations Officer [PPRO], ASP Moses Yamu, said the body of late Lucy has been deposited at the mortuary of the General Hospital, Gboko, while the police have intensified efforts to arrest the runaway Ushir.

“It is true that we got a report that one Terkaa Ushir allegedly killed his wife and fled the scene.

We have recovered the murder weapon but it is not yet clear why he committed the offence. But I can assure you that the culprit will be apprehended and made to answer for the crime he is alleged to have committed,” ASP Yamu said.