Woman burns herself, husband to death to prevent him from picking new wife

        Sorrow engulfed the Umuodo community of Itu in Ezinihitte LGA of Imo State last weekend when a man and his wife were burnt to death under very controversial circumstances. Mr Ngozi Chilekezi and his wife Patience alias Oil, had lived together as husband and wife for about 12 years before the tragedy.

        “On entering the room, his wife poured fuel on him, lit a match and held him tightly to ensure that he did no escape from the evil plot,” a villager recounted.
While some claimed that cans of fuel stored in the house suddenly went up in flames, others said the woman in an attempt kill her husband and escape with her boyfriend, poured fuel all around the house before inviting her husband home for a chat and lit a match that engulfed the building.

        The later story gained currency when it was confirmed that the husband, who was badly burnt at the time he was rushed to a nearby hospital, was able to narrate what happened to his relations.
Although none of the villagers, who spoke to Vanguard at the scene of the incident wanted their names in print, they were, however, in agreement that it was a well executed murder.The villagers quoted Chilekezi, who later died at the hospital, as revealing that he was invited last Saturday into their living room by his wife at about 1.30pm for a chat.

        The villager equally told Vanguard that Chilekezi, a relatively comfortable automobile technician, managed to extricate himself from his wife’s grip and ran out of the burning house and was taken to a nearby hospital for medical attention.

        The dying man also told his relations that his wife was equally trapped in the burning house but before people could get back to the house, the woman was burnt beyond recognition.

Unconfirmed report had it that the late wife allegedly planned to elope with another man but the plot leaked to her husband, who confronted the strange man said to be a native of Umuezeala, Itu, a neighbouring village.

       It was gathered that because of the development, her husband started making plans to take another wife.
The charred remains of Mrs. Chilekezi was still in the burnt house, while the husband’s body was deposited in an undisclosed morgue.

      Confirming the incident, Police PRO, Mrs. Joy Elemoko, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, said a crack teamof detectives from the state police headquarters had commenced investigation.