Husband strangles wife, leaves kids with corpse

Lekan and Ronke

The corpse

There was shock and outrage yesterday at the Orelope area of Egbeda, Lagos State, after a husband strangled his wife to death, leaving their two kids with their mother’s corpses.

The mother of two, Mrs. Ronke Bewaji Shonde was strangled by her husband in the early hours of Friday.

The woman was in her mid thirties and alleged to be quite rich. According to neighbours, the husband Lekan Shonde was in the habit of always hitting his wife.

Immediately Lekan realized his wife was dead, he bolted, leaving their two kids with their mother’s lifeless body in their living room.  Lekan was said to have locked the kids inside the apartment with the corpse, before taking off.

The first kid is seven-year-old, while the second is just four-year-old.

Residents were alerted that something was wrong when they heard the two kids, shouting and crying through the window that mummy refused to wake up.

Neighbours heard their cries and broke open the door of the apartment. They found Ronke’s lifeless body in the sitting room. Blood was coming out of her nostrils. There were bruises on her fair complexion skin.

According to kids’ nanny, who was contacted and raced to the scene, Lekan called her around 5am, on that fateful day, telling her not to come to work. He apparently called and gave her the order after it dawned on him Ronke was dead.

She said: “I ignored his order. I was with madam yesterday (Thursday) and she didn’t say anything to me. He must have planned it; this was why he asked me not to come to work on Friday. I have lost a good woman; a good boss to domestic violence.”

Neighbours explained that they had warned Ronke several times, to leave the marriage before Lekan kills her. She had however, repeatedly ignored their suggestion.

One of the female neighbours, crying, said: “I just can’t understand her reason for staying in such a violent marriage.”