Benue: Housewife allegedly kills self, husband, 3 children

A housewife, Rachael Adetsav, on Friday night allegedly killed her husband and three children at their one-bedroom apartment situated opposite NKST Church on Vandekiya Street in High Level area of Makurdi in Benue state.

The names of the other deceased were given as; Nicholas Adetsav who is the husband while the three children are, Ngwuese, 7, Evelyn, 5, and Joshua, 3.

Daily Trust gathered from the next-door neighbour, Barr. Tyeku Joseph, that he had just returned from work about 7pm on Friday when he saw the woman come out from her house with a pestle and started breaking the glasses of their Golf car.

Joseph added that when he saw that the violence took another dimension, he had to call in the police who broke into the victims’ apartment to discover the unbelievable.

Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) for Benue command, Moses Joel Yamu, has confirmed the tragic incident.

Yamu said a distress call was received at about 8:30pm adding that the Divisional Police Officer in charge of B division quickly mobilised to the location only to discover five corpses after his men had forced the door to the apartment opened.

He added that preliminary investigation indicated that prior to the incident, the woman (wife) had used a pestle to smashed the husband’s vehicle who was not in the house at the time but neighbour’s called him home.

The PPRO further explained that when the deceased husband returned, he went into the house and the door was thereafter locked until the police arrived to find the three children throats silted, the man lying dead foaming from his mouth and the woman who appeared to have stabbed herself with the knife in her hand.

Yamu said that the Commissioner of Police, Ene Okon, had ordered full investigation into the matter, stressing that upon completion of their findings, the command would be able to give conclusive details of who killed who.

Our correspondent also learnt that the dead bodies of the couple said to be staff of Makurdi Local Government Area and their children were removed that night and deposited at St. Theresa hospital’s morgue in Makurdi.

Meanwhile, crowd continue to besiege the compound where the tragedy occurred at the time of this incident even as police in plain clothes were also seen gathering further evidences.