I didn’t set my wife, in-law ablaze, widower of Scotland returnee declares

Vanguard

Benjamin Ogudoro, the 54-year-old man who was alleged to have burnt his Scotland returnee wife, Chinyere and brother-in-law, Ifeanyi Edoziem, to death at house 5, Oteri Garden estate   Abule-Ado, Lagos, a fortnight ago, has denied the allegation, stating rather, that they died in an inferno that engulfed their wing of the building.

He also denied having a marital crisis with his late wife, maintaining that the decision to sell their bungalow building was taken by both of them.

Recall that the mother of four, reportedly returned to Nigeria to stop her husband from selling the house she built,  due to an undisclosed  form of misunderstanding between them. 

The Master’s degree holder from a United Kingdom university did not survive the fire attack allegedly ignited by her husband, as she was burnt beyond recognition. 

His brother, Ifeanyi, who managed to find his way out of the burning apartment, from where he was rushed to the hospital,  made a dying declaration on how the suspect poured petrol on him and his sister while they were asleep and struck a match stick on them.

Groaning in excruciating pain from the burns, Ifeanyi,   in his dying declaration which was recorded, disclosed that “my sister and I were sleeping when her husband came in late, banging on the door. We had a little misunderstanding as he accused me of locking him outside. I told him I didn’t, that I only used the key lock and that besides; he could have opened the door since he had his keys with him.

He kept shouting that I locked him out. He insulted me and my sister. But we kept quiet. He left the room, only to return when we had slept, poured petrol on us, lit the fire and went out.

“While the fire was burning, I managed to escape but couldn’t save my sister. I was fortunate enough to survive”.

Unfortunately,   he passed on moments later, at the hospital.

Denial

However, when approached,   Benjamin who was paraded at the Lagos State Police Command headquarters, Ikeja,   yesterday, expressed delight at what he described as an opportunity to tell the world his side of the story.

 He said: “This is an opportunity to give my side of the story. It is not true that I poured fuel on my wife and her brother. It was a case of a fire incident.

“My wife came back from Scotland on April 1, 2022.   She called me at about 9 pm that day, to tell me she was around, probably she wanted to take me by surprise. I started rushing home. When I got home, she was already inside.   We hugged and   I took some of the luggages inside.

“Later, her phone rang, she picked up the call and said she wanted to take the call where Ifeanyi   (her brother ) was…