The following day, Sunday, was slated for the special family get-together (Walimah), but unknown to the families, the merriment would to be short-lived. The bride suddenly collapsed in the bathroom where she went to take a bath ahead of the event billed for 4 pm of that fateful day. Weekly Trust learnt that she died of suffocation from a power generating set at her home.
Weekly Trust enquiries in the area revealed that the 20-year-old bride had written her last examination at the Hassan Usman Katsina Polytechnic were she was studying Mass Education.
The situation, Weekly Trust learnt, threw the entire Abattoir Quarters into confusion. Narrating the incident, a neighbour and friend to the groom, Malam Mustapha (Madahan Katsina) said he was outside the house at around 2:30 pm when women in the house called his attention to the development and he immediately rushed the bride to the hospital after calling the attention of the groom.
A close friend to the bride, Sumayya Kabir, who was in the house when incident happened, said she was with the bride before she went into the bathroom. She said they became worried when they discovered the bride was staying longer than necessary in the bathroom. They called her name without a response. They became curious and had to open the door, only to find Fadila lying unconscious on the floor of the bathroom.
Sumayya said that they also discovered that the entire toilet was stuffy with generator fumes, adding that the generator was taken into the toilet to avoid a fire accident.
Weekly Trust learnt that the groom was at the hospital with his first wife when officials of the Federal Medical Centre where they took the bride to announced to him her death. The groom, devastated by the news, slumped and he was admitted at the hospital. He was, however, discharged later in the day.
Describing his wife as the most patient human being he has ever known, Sani, was an ex-councillor and member of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). He said though he never contemplated leaving politics, he might do so now to fulfil a promise he made to his deceased bride.
