Two freshly covered graves behind a three-bedroom bungalow in Ogooluwa community, Akiode Ibogun, Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State, now stand as grim reminders of a tragedy that has left residents stunned.
The adjacent graves belong to a husband and wife who died within hours of each other following an alleged domestic dispute.
When a correspondent visited the residence on Thursday, the house and the nearby Celestial Church of Christ, Iri Orun Parish, owned by the couple, were deserted. The quiet atmosphere reflected the shock that has engulfed the community since the incident.
The tragedy occurred in the early hours of Monday, August 31, when the Shepherd of the parish, Bidemi Odukoya, allegedly attacked his wife with a machete during a domestic altercation before later taking his own life.
The incident reportedly happened at about 2am. After the alleged attack, Odukoya, who was the father of three boys, reportedly left the community and made his way to Coker Junction in Ifo, along the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway.
He was later said to have jumped in front of a moving truck, resulting in his death. The couple were subsequently buried beside their home on Monday evening.
Residents said they found the incident particularly shocking because the couple had lived peacefully in the community for nearly a decade and were widely regarded as friendly and respectful.
The Baale of the community, Chief Taiwo Akiode, said the incident had thrown the entire area into mourning.
“This unfortunate incident is the first of its kind in this environment. It is a tragedy of monumental proportion that no one saw coming. It is something that you only come across in Nollywood films, those ones we watch on television. Nobody ever believes that such a sad incident could happen just at our backyard.
“It is even more puzzling and very disturbing with the kind of personalities involved, I mean the Shepherd and his wife. Both of them were very jovial and respectful. They behaved so responsibly and greeted me cheerfully whenever they were passing by.
“Since over nine or 10 years that they have been living with us, you don’t get to hear that the couple are troublesome or quarrelsome.
“So I find it difficult to believe that it is these same set of people that could be involved in such a brutal domestic fight that claimed their souls in a very disturbing manner, leaving everyone behind to wallow in wild bewilderment.”
Akiode said he was alerted to the incident around 3am after residents informed him that the Shepherd had allegedly killed his wife. According to him, they had earlier contacted the police and were advised to also notify the community leader.
He recalled: “I was told that the Shepherd had killed his wife, that he macheted her. I could not believe my ears until we got to their residence and met the woman in a pool of her blood.
“There was a wound that looked like a machete cut and there was also a stool which we also heard that the man smashed on his wife’s head.
“The police later came around and took photographs of the scene. All this while, the Shepherd was nowhere to be found. The thought was that he had taken to his heels, having realised the weight of his grievous actions.”
The community leader said another report emerged around 7am that Odukoya had allegedly died after jumping in front of a moving truck along the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway in Ifo.
“We thereafter sent some residents to go and confirm the report, which they did. The police at Ifo got involved and took it up from there,” he said.
According to Akiode, eyewitness accounts suggested that Odukoya had repeatedly crossed the expressway before sitting on the median.
“Some people at Ifo told us that when the deceased got to the expressway, he was crossing the expressway back and forth repeatedly. He later sat on the divider, after which he saw an oncoming truck and jumped before it and died.”
The wife was buried at about 5pm, while her husband’s body was returned to the community later that evening for burial beside her.
“The corpse of the husband, which was brought back to the community very late, maybe because of documentation and other things, was buried beside his wife past seven in the evening,” Akiode added.
He said the community was still struggling to come to terms with the shocking development.
“These are what we usually hear on radio, that a man killed his wife or a wife stabbed her husband to death. It is never what anyone of us thought could happen within our vicinity.
“So it happened so unexpectedly that the horror reverberated across the community, leaving all of us to keep wondering what could have gone wrong.”
Akiode said reports of alleged frequent disagreements between the couple only surfaced after their deaths.
“It is after their death that some people were saying that the couple were fond of fighting, but like I said earlier, I never heard anything like that.
“These people were quite nice. You will even think that they were siblings. They cut a picture of a loving couple that I would never have, in my wildest imagination, thought could cause all of this anguish.”
He urged couples to exercise patience and seek help before marital disagreements escalate.
“It is worrisome that this could happen between husband and wife. It calls for lots of sober reflection. We should know that even if we disagree as couples, it should not be to the extent that life will be lost.
“We should see ourselves as partners and we must build our relationship on genuine love. We should also not wait for things to degenerate if we are having challenges with our marriage. We should seek help and counselling before things get out of hand.”
The community’s youth leader, Seun Adelana, alleged that accusations of infidelity may have triggered the crisis.
He said, “Allegations of infidelity from both the husband and wife were said to have been the major reason responsible for this sad event.
“The husband was said to have been alleging that the wife was dating another man, and some people also said that the shepherd was dating another woman. So, this is what we gathered led to the altercation, which made the husband kill the woman,” Adelana added.
However, a neighbour, Mrs Oluwatoyin Oseni, claimed the couple had a history of domestic violence and that previous disputes had sometimes left the woman injured.
“Sincerely, Mummy Daniel and her husband, who we fondly called Iri Orun, have always engaged in domestic fights. Recently, I had to help take care of the wife after their usual fight.
“There was even police involvement, after which we thought that the misunderstanding had been settled. It was after the tragedy of Monday, August 31, that we got to understand that both husband and wife had reportedly not been on speaking terms since June as a fallout of their regular squabble,” Oseni said.
She said the couple’s 14-year-old first child, Daniel, alerted her at about 2am after discovering that his father had allegedly attacked his mother.
“By the time myself and one other neighbour got to the residence of the couple, we discovered the lifeless body of Mummy Daniel with a broken head, all covered in blood, on the floor.
“We later got to hear that the Shepherd used a machete and wooden stool to smash the head of his wife. We also saw Daddy Daniel with a cutlass in his hand.
“As I was asking him why he would go to the extent of killing his wife, he calmly said that he too was as good as gone. But because he was holding the cutlass, we could not move closer,” she added.
Oseni said Odukoya later went back into the house, but neighbours did not realise that he had subsequently left the community.
“He later went inside the house, but we never knew that he had escaped that midnight from the community to go and kill himself at Ifo along Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway,” she said.
She described the incident as particularly heartbreaking, saying she had repeatedly encouraged the deceased woman to seek peace amid the couple’s marital problems.
“Nobody knows that such a huge calamity could befall us here. These are what we hear on radio or watch on television. Nobody could have thought that such would happen in our community.
“I have particularly been weeping since this incident occurred because I have always told Mummy Daniel to try and be patient and give peace a chance because I am always troubled by the couple’s persistent fight.
“But she would always tell me that she can’t leave her children behind, particularly her last born, who is seven years old. But sadly, everything has ended this terrible and painful way.”
The Asiwaju of Ibogun Akiode, Chief Oluwasegun Adeboye, also expressed sadness over the deaths, noting that residents had largely viewed the couple as peaceful and sociable.
He said claims about persistent marital problems only became widely known after the tragedy.
“It was after the tragedy that we began to hear that they were given to frequent fights and all that.
“We even heard that they have already taken their case to court and they were asked to go back home and see if they could amicably resolve their differences, after which they return to the court for the next course of action.”
“According to what we heard, they were supposed to have returned to court again on Wednesday, but everything has ended on Monday, two days earlier,” he stated.
The community leader said some residents had also attributed the tragedy to spiritual forces.
“Some of us also believe that what happened might not be unconnected with some diabolical powers: it goes beyond the ordinary. We are only praying that the devil will not have a foothold in our homes,” he added.
When contacted for reaction, ASP Ogeni Olubode, the Deputy Police Public Relations Officer of the state command, said the police was already investigating the incident.
He said, “The command is very much aware of the case. The case file is currently being transferred to the SCID for diligent investigation into knowing the actual facts surrounding the sad incidents.”
