MOTHER OF TWO FOUND DEAD IN HER BED

Bose's lifeless body

Culled from Daily Sun;

In Ososa village in Ogun State, there is a raging puzzle: Who killed Bose, a mother of two children? At her death, she was living with her third husband after two previous failed marriages. Her lifeless body was found on her matrimonial bed on January 10, 2013. It was covered with her own wrapper. Her freshly braided hair was undone. All these raise the suspicion that someone or some people might have attacked her. But who did it, and why?

These are riddles no one, including her husband, Mr. Williams Yellow, can readily provide answers to. And the police? Well, it would seem that it is not of any interest to them. "The police didn't tell us they suspected anything but they asked if we want them to investigate the matter, we asked them not to do so because we know it would gulp a lot of money which we can't afford." That was Bose's father. And for now, the matter is as dead and buried as Bose, the subject.

Yellow, a fisherman, said on that day, he had hurried home from his fishing expedition, following an ominous feeling he felt while at work. He said he rode home on his motorbike at noon as against his usual time of between 5 and 6pm. He got to his one-room apartment on Oke-ala Street, of the town to discover that his wife had died in such a strange and tragic circumstance. Yellow is from Warri in Delta State.

He said on discovering this, he raised alarm and other residents rushed in to see the strange development. 

The police, according to the father of the deceased, Mr. Sunday Osakoya, was promptly informed. Neighbours said she was last seen fetching water from the house adjacent to her's. "We saw a twine which could have been used to strangle Bose, shreds of the clothing she wore last and faeces she could have defecated while she was being strangled by her assailants and we concluded that somebody or some people must have come to strangle her to death and put her on the bed and cover her up to look like she died in the bed," Mrs. Lara Lawal, younger sister of the deceased's mum, told this paper on telephone.

Saturday Sun was in Ososa last Tuesday to talk with people key to the incident. Here are their reports:

I'm still in shock - husband.

That day, I left home around 7am to go and fish. But in the bush, I wasn't feeling settled; it was like something was wrong with me. So, I decided to come home early. When I got home, I noticed that the door leading to the backyard was left open, and then I first went there and again, it was strange to find out that water was poured on the floor. Also, everywhere was scattered and I was wondering what could have happened. But then I made for our room and there I saw her in the bed covered with a wrapper. Thinking that she was sleeping, I called her and asked if she didn't know that I was around, as the noise of my motorbike ought to have woken her up. She didn't answer me and then I went to the bed, sat at on the edge and called her again, tapping her. I was also wondering in my mind what kind of sleeping she was doing. Then when she wasn't waking, I removed the wrapper and saw that she was naked. I carried her and held her to my chest and discovered that she was dead. It was then I raised alarm.

She didn't tell me that she had any issue with anybody and I am not suspecting anybody. We have been together for a year now and she didn't quarrel with anybody. I met her when she used to sell cassava waste to me. We used to discuss then and she would complain that her former husband was not taking care of her and the child. Sometimes out of pity, I would give her money. Later, she told me she was leaving her husband to go to Lagos and work. But after sometime, she called to tell me that Lagos wasn't good for her and that she was coming back to the village.

Then she came back and one day, I proposed marriage to her. She had left the former husband then. That was how we began to live as husband and wife. I was married before in Bayelsa with three children but the three children are dead. I am no longer with their mother as she lives in Bayelsa now.

I'm confused - Mr. Sunday Osakoya, deceased's dad

It happened on January 10, I was at work when my elder sister phoned to tell me that I should start coming home. She was wailing profusely on the phone, calling Bose's name and asking me to start coming home. So, I took a motorbike and rushed down. And when the motorbike was approaching Bose's place, I saw many people gathered there and I became anxious. We got to the place and many were wailing calling Bose's name. I was led to their one-room apartment and there, I saw the corpse of my daughter lying in the bed and covered with a wrapper. She was dead.

She was buried that day but the police were there at the scene of the incident. We noticed that at the backyard of the house, which leads into the bush, there were traces of some people struggling. People said she could have been strangled to death.

The police didn't tell us they suspected anything but they asked if we want them to investigate the matter, we asked them not to do so because we know it would gulp a lot of money, which we can't afford.

Bose had two children from her previous marriages. There is Precious from an Ibo man who didn't take care of her and the child. And there is Michael just two years old from a man who was supposed to cure her of a spiritual problem she had. The father of Michael is a white-garment pastor to whom we had taken Bose when she had spiritual problem after her first horrible encounter with her first man. The man ended up impregnating her after curing her.

I suspect her former husband but… Mary Osakoya, deceased's mum

I was coming from a place I had gone to work when I received a call from my husband's sister saying that I should leave the place I was and start coming home. And then I told her I was home already. When I got home, I was told that they have sent for me from Bose's place and then I rushed down to the place and there I saw many people crying, I saw the husband and he was also lamenting, shouting Bose's name. And then I asked him what happened. I became apprehensive and rushed into their room and I saw her in the bed. I carried her and the first thing I noticed was that all the hairs on her head had been pulled off. On discovering that she was dead, I became hysterical and eventually passed out.

Bose didn't tell me she had unresolved issues with anyone before this incident, but I suspected something when I began to play back what happened between her and the former husband. I remember that eight days after the birth of their baby, Bose had a serious quarrel with the man because he wasn't taking care of her and the baby. The man in question had a wife and three children before he impregnated Bose. He was to cure her of a spiritual problem she had when he eventually put her in the family way.

Bose and the man had a very serious fight that some even rumoured that she organised some thugs to beat the man up but when I asked her she denied it. But the two of them fought very hard in my presence. And that led to their separation. The fight was so serious that the man didn't allow Bose to be present at the christening of the baby in his church. He eventually left the child in her care. It was the present husband who has been taking care of the children and Bose before she got killed now. The children are now in our care.

When the news got to the man that Bose was dead, for two days, he didn't even bother to come here. We only heard that he was telling people that he had lost Bose. I got annoyed and got the police to arrest him and I accused him of killing my daughter. But he later brought some of the elders in their church to plead with us to forget the case.

Bose was a very gentle girl. She wasn't fighting anyone, unlike me who is tough. We only quarreled when she would want to go to church. I attend Deeper Life Bible Church. I also used to quarrel with her on how to live a good life. The last quarrel we had was about marriage. I warned her that she should be very careful about making choice of a husband given the fact that two men had disappointed her in life.

She was also very beautiful and brilliant. Although, we could only sponsor her up to the secondary school level, she was so brilliant that she measured up to a university graduate in the way she commanded the English language. We wanted her to become a big woman in future; we wanted her to further her education up to the university level. In fact, some of our church members had indicated interest in helping to get her admitted into the university, but we didn't have the money. It was during all this delay that she suddenly got pregnant for the first man and then her nightmares with men began.