Bidemi Odukoya, the pastor of Celestial Church of Christ, Iri Orun Parish, allegedly killed his wife at their residence in Ogooluwa community, Akiode Ibogun, Ifo LGA of Ogun state.
According to Punch, Odukoya, a father of three boys, threw himself in front of a moving truck along the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway after his wife died.
The newspaper reported that the incident happened around 2am on August 31, when the couple engaged in a domestic fight.
Oluwatoyin Oseni, a neighbour of the deceased couple, was quoted as saying that the couple frequently engaged in domestic fights, some of which had resulted in injuries to the wife.
Oseni said one of the couple’s domestic fights led to the involvement of the police.
“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,” the neighbour said.
“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.”
The neighbour said it was Daniel, the couple’s 14-year-old first son, who woke her at around 2am after his father had attacked his mother.
Oseni said when she and another neighbour got to the couple’s residence, they discovered the lifeless body of the wife with a broken head, all covered in blood, on the ground.
“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,” the neighbour said.
“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.
“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.”
Speaking with journalists, Seun Adelana, the youth leader of the community, claimed that the couple’s dispute was a result of allegations of infidelity.
“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,” Adelana said.
“So, this is what we gathered led to the altercation, which made the husband kill the woman.”
Taiwo Akiode, Baale of the community, said some people in Ifo saw the cleric crossing the expressway before sitting on the road median.
“Some people at Ifo told us that when the deceased got to the expressway, he was crossing the expressway back and forth repeatedly,” Akiode said.
“He later sat on the divider, after which he saw an oncoming truck and jumped before it and died.”
Opeyemi Oluborode, deputy police spokesperson in Ogun, told TheCable that the state police commissioner has ordered a thorough investigation into the accident.
Oluborode said the matter has been transferred to the state criminal investigation department to unravel the details of the incident.
