Egbeda murder: Lekan was jealous, scared —Deceased’s confidant

Gloria Esiohe, a former colleague of late Mrs. Ronke Shonde, who was allegedly beaten to death by her husband Lekan, last week, in their Egbeda residence, yesterday, revealed that jealousy and fear of losing his wife could have led him to kill his wife. But the suspect, Lekan Shonde, insisted that he did not kill his wife. The suspect also refuted the reports alleging that he has a child outside wedlock. Enraged Esiohe, in a chat with Vanguard, promised to show up in court to give evidence on all she knew about the domestic violence on her late friend whenever the case gets to court. Late Ronke Shonde with her alleged killer husband during their ‘sweet’ days She had earlier told Vanguard that the deceased raised fears of losing her life a week before the incident, due to what she described as Lekan’s over-bearing attitude. According to Esiohe: “My late friend complained that her husband was always eavesdropping anytime she was on the phone. Whenever she was going out, Lekan would follow her without her knowledge. He would hide behind cars to see if she would enter into any man’s car. “At times, when he returned early from work, he would hang around, waiting to see if his wife would be dropped off by a man. “Most times he would tell her to go and change her clothes and at any resistance, my friend said he would beat her. “The Police can ask the children. Sometimes the children would be consoling their late mother anytime their father beat her. Most times she tried to maintain a calm disposition in order to give the children the impression that all was well. She also complained that he was temperamental.” Esiohe added: “The straw that broke the camel’s back was when she got to know that Lekan had a child outside wedlock. She went into depression. At a point she thought of moving out of the house, but kicked against the idea after many pleas from Lekan and interventions from some relatives. “I have had cause to even beg Lekan to tread softly with his late wife and he told me all he was doing was because he loved her with his life and was ready to die for her. He said it was unfortunate that he did not have much money to take care of her the way he really wanted to. He also said he was scared of losing her to another man. “During that conversation, my late friend came out and told him that she had no intention of marrying another man, not after having two children. She jokingly said, ‘who will even marry a Tokunbo woman’ and we all laughed over it. You can verify from her sister all what I am telling you,” Esiohe stated. I have no child outside However, when approached, Lekan denied ever having any child outside. Though he admitted that a woman claimed he was pregnant for him and even had a child. He said: “The lady came with the baby one year after she claimed she had the child for me. When I discussed the issue with my friends, they suggested we should go for a DNA to confirm the paternity. But I swear, the child isn’t mine. Do you know what? The lady has even taken the child to the real father after I told her I would go for a DNA test. The name of the real father is Niyi. They are only saying that to give the dog a bad name.”

Culled from Vanguard