In an interview session granted to Oluwole Ige (Tribune) by the elder brother to Mr. Lowo Oyediran who was allegedly murdered at Akobo area in Ibadan, Oyo state, on Tuesday by his wife, Mr Adewale Adelani Oyewusi, his wife, Bunmi and daughter Abisola had these to say about the deceased and on the matter.
Mr Oyewusi who described himself as someone in place of a father to the deceased expressed his devastation on receiving the news of the deceased’s death as he had only spoken to him five days before the incident occurred.
He added that “Lowo was everything to the family. He was the bridge between the old and the young. He unified everybody in the family. He was a comforter to everybody. I sponsored his university education. I never knew that I was never going to see Lowo again.
“He always said that ‘I know we don’t have money in our family, but daddy, if God spares my life, I would put smile on the face of everybody.’”
The elder brother described Lowo, the deceased’s background as a humble one adding that he attended Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, from where he moved to France to continue his post-graduate programme in 2006. He said Lowo returned to the country in 2012 and got married on 8 and 9 February, 2013.
He described Lowo as the comedian in the family with a high sense of humour.
“We were jolted when we were informed that Lowo had been stabbed to death by his wife. When we got to the police station at Akobo, there was pandemonium. There was wailing. All the family members had converged on the police station. From there, we moved to the house with the landlord and policemen. The landlord did not mince words in his statement that it was Yewande that slaughtered him.”
The deceased elder brother disclosed that the attack which led to his brother’s death wasn’t the first attempt by his wife to kill Lowo as she only succeeded in stabbing him in the armpit and on the back on her first attempt.
Oyewusi recounted that “He (Lowo) was rushed to the hospital. After he was treated, they went back home and the landlord tried to settle their dispute. They did not go to bed until about 3.00 in the morning. The landlord said he even advised Lowo to sleep in his apartment but he said there was no need for that since the quarrel had been settled. The landlord said some minutes past 6.00 a.m., there was a cry for help from Lowo’s flat and people rushed out only to find that he had been stabbed, again, in the neck by his wife when he was sleeping. Lowo managed to take a few steps afterwards and slumped just as he got outside. If he was not asleep, it would not have been possible for his wife to overpower him.
The wife had previously boasted to the woman that took her husband to the hospital after the first attack that what she did was just a tip of the iceberg. The woman said she was oblivious of the seriousness of her statement because all she was concerned about at the time was to save Lowo’s life, otherwise she would have recorded her statement.”
The brother continue that the police had invited the woman and the doctor who treated Lowo for their statement, adding that it’s a clear murder case as the knife used to stab the deceased was found in the pool of his blood, but a matter of concern has been the whereabouts of his cell phone “The world is a global village and it would be easy to get his last conversation on the phone through the GSM network provider.”
“His death is a colossal loss to us. We had to take our aged mother to Ife under the pretext that she was going to see her doctor so that she would not know what had happened. For the fact that Lowo spoke with her about four days earlier, she could not suspect that he had died.
“Lowo’s death is like a conspiracy, a grand design to just snuff the life out of him. If you look at the picture of the first and second attempts, you will know what I am talking about. They were married for about three years, but Lowo had a girlfriend in France and along the line, she got pregnant for him and bore him a male child about a year ago. But, Lowo’s wife stumbled on that information and that was the genesis of the crisis. Since then, there had been angry disputes between them. I was aware that Yewande’s family invited them and settled the matter.
“Her parents told her to accept what had happened because there was nothing she could do about it. Perhaps she had a plan unknown to Lowo. I remember that Lowo confided in me that Yewande told him that he should not let our family know about his girlfriend who had had a child for him back in France.”
When asked if he noticed quarrels between the couple prior to Lowo’s death, Oyewusi said “Honestly, there was never a time that we settled a dispute for them. The only thing we noticed was that on their wedding day, she was brought here so that they could pour water on her legs. They wanted to get water from a bowl but she refused. So, we had to get bottled water and then the wife of the Olufi of Gbongan poured the water on her feet. That was the last time we saw Yewande. There was not even a phone call from her.”
Oyewusi speaking for the family said they all want Justice and fairness, even as they know that Yewande’s work place at the Department of Public Prosecution (DPP) of the Oyo State Ministry of Justice is in charge of such cases as Yewande has found herself in.
He also stated that the family could not find any of the deceased’s documents including international passports (both Nigerian and French), company documents and other personal items.
Lowo’s Niece, Abisola said she couldn’t access him because of his wife during his lifetime, describing the death as an unexpected disaster. She explained that “The morning of the incident, I woke up in tears even without knowing that something terrible had happened. I went into my dad’s room and asked if he slept well. I told my mum about the tears in my eyes and the dream I had. So, we decided to pray. But my father’s brother called us about five times. My mum asked dad to answer the call, so he picked up the phone and said, ‘Deji, I will call you back. We are praying.’ But Uncle Deji asked my dad not to hang up the phone. He said Uncle Lowo had been killed.
“After they got married, Yewande chased everybody away. I couldn’t go to their house because of her. When the incident happened and we got to the police station, Lowo’s corpse was not there and Yewande was not there. We learnt that she was in the hospital, receiving treatment.
Their landlord told us that when she first stabbed him, she threatened that ‘I will kill you today.’ The killing was absurd. I helped her marry him, now she’s killed him”
Bunmi Oyediran, Lowo’s sister-in-law who had bankrolled Yewande’s travel to meet Lowo before they got married said “I bought the air ticket for Yewande to meet Lowo in Dubai. Now, she has killed him. If you called Lowo and he was with his wife, he would say ‘I will call you back.’ He had so much fear for his wife. If his wife was not around, he would call and say that we should come and play with him. Since the day of her wedding, Yewande never stepped into this house.
“Her father even called me one day after the wedding, cursing me that I did not put clothes in her wedding box. My husband trained Lowo after he left secondary school. Lowo was everything to me. He understood me and knew everything about me. If I was angry, they would call Lowo to talk to me. They have taken him away from me. I cannot see Lowo again!
“Yewande’s father was begging me yesterday, for what?, after the deed has been done? When I was pregnant with my youngest child, I never knew. Lowo encouraged me to take a medical test, which confirmed the pregnancy. This was because I was already over 40 years when I got pregnant. Lowo said I should come to France and relax because of my age.”
The deceased, Mr. Lowo Oyediran, was 38 years of age before he met with his death on Tuesday.