Saliu Ladayo, the man who allegedly killed his girlfriend in Ondo, Confidence Nwanma, has been asked by the deceased family to marry her corpse in line with their tradition.
Ladayo was said to have stabbed Nwanma to death last week at Ladayo’s residence in the Oshinle area of Akure, the Ondo State capital, as a result of a disagreement between the two.
He has since been arrested by the men of the Ondo State Police Command.
However, the deceased’s father, Mr. Jude Nwanma, insisted that the custom must be observed in their home town in the Oru East Local Government Area of Imo State before his late daughter was buried.
He added that failure to perform the traditional rite would spell doom for the family of Ladayo.
“In our place, it is mandatory that the man must marry the corpse of our daughter. We must observe the custom by taking the corpse to our village where the marriage would take place,” he said.
“It is mandatory that he pays the dowry in double because he brought our daughter dead for marriage.
“He would observe all the dictates of the custom before our family would let him go. Without this, every young person from the family of the man will never get to the age of our daughter. They will die a sudden death just like our daughter.
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” This is not our making; it is the way our ancestors put it down even before we were born. Our people all over the world are waiting for the court judgment. Whichever way it goes, the boy must perform the marital rite to our daughter’s corpse.
Meanwhile, suspect, who was paraded at the headquarters of the state police command, blamed the devil for his actions.
According to him, “When she came to my house, some people on the street told her that I came to the house with another woman. She was annoyed and she started cursing me that if I made love with another girl, I would not make it in life.
“She left and when she came back to me later, I asked her to forgive me and reverse the curses. She refused and I seized her mobile phone. We both struggled for the phone and I didn’t know what came over me; I just took a knife and stabbed her to death.”
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Femi Joseph, noted that suspect would soon be charged to court.