IKEJA—Folake Oyahire, immediate younger sister to the late banker, Mrs. Titilayo Arowolo, allegedly murdered by her husband, Akolade Arowolo, yesterday, told an Ikeja High Court, Lagos, that the accused had been violent to his wife even before her death.
Led in evidence by the state Director of Public Prosecution, DPP, Mrs. Olabisi Ogungbesan, Oyakhire said on several occasions, her sister had told her of the rough time she was having in the hands of her husband, especially while at home with him in their Akindehinde Street, Isolo, Lagos, residence.
Oyahire, a law student of the Nigerian Law School, said the eventual death of her banker-sister was the cumulative events of fighting between the couple
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Folake, who said she was close to her sister, notwithstanding that she schooled in Abuja, also told the court that she knew that there had been prior incidents visited on her sister by the husband.
She said: “My sister, Titilayo, had invited me over to her family friend’s house, where she was visiting with her husband. When I got there and saw her, every part of her face was swollen and her eyes were bloodshot. She told me she got the injury when she and Akolade went out the night before.
“She told me that on their way back, Akolade had kept raining blows on her in the face despite the fact that she was carrying her baby in her arms.”
She corroborated the evidence given by Titilayo’s step-mother, Adetoun and her sister, Aidehi.
She added that on June 24, Aidehi received a call from their father, who was away in Kano State that Titilayo had sounded apprehensive and panicky and that they should visit her. She said they could not go that day because it was raining heavily, but that herself and Aidehi, started calling her Starcomms and MTN lines.
She said: “At first, someone picked the Starcomms, but did not say anything, it became silent on the other end. Eventually, her husband picked the call and when I asked about Titilayo, he told me they had some minor issues but that they had resolved it.
“I then asked to speak with my sister and the defendant told me to hold on for two minutes that he would give her the phone. But the phone went silent and I called back several times and nobody picked when it rang.”
The witness added that she had gone to the market to buy foodstuff on the next day, when she received a call from her sister, Aidehi, that she should come to the Isolo residence of the deceased, that something had happened. According to her, she immediately took a cab to Isolo and ran straight to her sister’s apartment on the last floor of the three- storey building.
She said: “I noticed the door had been forced opened when I got to my sister’s house. I went straight to the bedroom where I saw her body on the bed. I saw a knife in her neck; there was blood on the bed and one of her eyes was dangling from its socket.
“There was also a big wound on the left side of her chest. I quickly ran out of the room because I couldn’t stand the sight any further. I felt dizzy. So, I went downstairs and stayed there till the police arrived and took the corpse away to the mortuary.”
The landlord of the Akolade’s residence at Akindehide St., Isolo, Lagos (names withheld) also testified before the court.
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