ACID BATH : JEALOUSY  KILLING LOVERS .
BY PATIENCE OGBO

THE EAGLE EYE NEWSPAPER
Ijeoma  Nwachukwu  26  , a sales girl   visited her boyfriend Christian Ifeanyi 24 on January 11^th but that was the last time her family and friends saw her alive.

Unknown to  Ijeoma,  Ifeanyi  whom she had dated for four years had a sinister plan for her .

Ifeanyi   who was   a spare part apprentice allegedly lured Ijeoma   to the Cossby hotel at Abule –Osun in Lagos State where he allegedly poured acid(electrolyte)  in her mouth before he strangled her  to death.

After waiting endlessly for Ijeoma to return home , her family became agitated and went looking for her.

They reported her missing at the Onireke police station and the police questioned her best friend Joy about ijeoma’s whereabouts  .

Joy   however told the police she left Ijeoma at the bus stop after Ifeanyi   told  Ijeoma to come and see him alone .

The case was transferred to the Area E police station at Festac Town  and the Area Commander , Damien Okoro set up a team of crack detectives  to investigate the case .

Meanwhile, officers attached to the Area E   police Station had received a report that the body of a lady was lying in the bush at Abule -Oshun.

 The Area Commander detailed policemen and they   went to remove the corpse to the mortuary.

Ijeoma’s family members were invited and they identified the corpse .

The team of crack detectives went after Ifeanyi   but the young man had already packed his belongings to flee Lagos.

His boss however told the police , Ifeanyi came to him and said he was abandoning his  training to return to the village but  the police confronted him with the fact that Ifeanyi might have murdered his girlfriend which was why he was planning to run away .

Ifeanyi came to bid his master farewell but the policemen were waiting for him and he was subsequently arrested.

“I killed her because she wanted to marry another man.”

Following the arrest, the police interrogated Ifeanyi and he confessed  he lured Ijeoma to the hotel.

In his confessional statement to the police, Ifeanyi said he was aggrieved that after  dating Ijeoma for four years, Ijeoma was going to leave him to marry a richer guy.

“ I have known ijeoma for four years. I am an apprentice learning how to sale spare parts and we have been lovers. I intend to marry her as soon as I complete my servitude but she was deceiving me. I learnt from reliable sources that she was double dating as she has found another lover who is richer.

I learnt that she was planning marriage with him and would soon abandon me; I became jealous and furious that a lady I have spent money and time would leave me for another man so I lured her to the hotel . I had already bought electrolyte chemical from a battery repairer that I want to use it to wash my  dirty toilet . I then called her to meet me in the hotel where I held her down, poured the acid in her mouth before I strangle her to death.

Ifeanyi  fled the hotel on a bike after he allegedly killed Ijeoma but the hotel management later discovered  the corpse in the room but  went to dump it  in a nearby bush.

 The hotel management  did not report the crime to the police and this led to the arrest of the owner of the hotel and his younger brother.

The police arraigned the suspects in court and they are facing prosecution.

Also in January , the corpse of a -45 -year- old woman identified as Omolara  Ashiru was found stark naked in the Stallion hotel at Adeniyi Adele Ikeja .
Policemen attached to the ManCentre police station  were invited to the room where they removed the corpse .

Two staff of the hotel were arrested . They told the police  the deceased  came to the hotel with a man but the man  deceived the hotel staff that he was going to withdraw some money from the automated teller machine but the unnamed  man did not return to the hotel.

The incident  which happened  on January 23th was later transferred to the Homicide Section State Criminal Investigation Department Panti Yaba.,

The staff told the police that the unidentified man was a regular customer of the hotel but the information he gave them  was  false  .

“That day, he came with the woman. The man is our usual customer and h came as usual to the hotel with a tall, dark, plompy woman . He booked for a room and after a while he came to the receptionist and told him that he would like to spend the night with his female friend but he did not have money to book for the night . He told the receptionist that he wanted to go to the ATM to withdraw some cash but he man did not com back. After waiting endlessly for him, the manager was informed and he ordered that the woman he came with should be informed so she can leave the hotel but to our shock, after entering the room, the woman was found stake naked , her brazier and other underwear were scattered on the ground . She was stone dead. We raised alarm and invited the police from the ManCentre police station at  Ikeja but they could not trace the man and the woman was identified as Omolara Ashiru “
the case has since been transferred to the Homicide department at Panti Yaba for thorough investigation. The police found a bottle of water in the room and they took it away.

A manhunt has began to arrest the fleeing man but an autopsy will show what the cause of death is but a police source said they suspect t  the suspect  poisoned the woman  with a chemical suspected to be acid which led to her death- the police source said they found a bottle of water in the room where the corpse was discovered .

While the police said  there are few reported cases of acid bath in the country, victims of acid bath not only lose their lives but some are permanently disfigured.

  Justice for the victims may end with  the arrest  and prosecution of the perpetrators but only the victims can explain the  excruciating pains   they suffer  and are  left disfigured despite several surgeries.

This was the case of  a -25 -year old student of the Federal University of Technology Yola, Miss  Franca Ogbu  who  was bathe with acid over her refusal to date a fellow student Chibuzor Nkire .

The incident which happened in 2011 left Franca’s face  down to her chest disfigured despite undergoing 11 surgeries .  ,

Miss  Ogbu while narrating how she was attacked said she was studying for her examination with her friend  Hannah in one of the  classrooms in the school when a  male voice called her but before she could say anything she felt a burning sensation on her face  .

“I felt something chill splashed on my arm and face, it was severe burn and I  shouted  uncontrollably ‘my face, my face, fire’ before other students joined in raising alarm over the incident”

Six students were expelled from the school over the incident but Miss Ogbu was left to suffer severe pains.

A public appeal went out on her behalf for the surgeries to be performed on the battered body but the young woman is still disfigured.

Also , a  400-level student, Gladys Onwosureye,  of  the Department of English,  Faculty of Arts, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria  was bathed with concentrated acid .

Gladys fingered her boyfriend, James popularly known as Jimmy, a graduate of Sociology as the mastermind of the crime.

Gladys said James attacked her  in front of the   Suleiman Hall, while  she was answering  a phone call .

Narrating how the love affair turned sour, a source said.

“ Gladys and Jimmy have been dating each other since she came to the campus. They seem to be in love. Jimmy was a Sociology student but during his final year, Glady’s parents told her to call off  the relationship that they do not approve the two of them should continue dating.

Jimmy went for youth service and he came back to the campus for his masters programme. He thought he could get Gladys to change her mind but she refused. He felt if he cannot date her then no man should and that was why he poured the acid on her so that she will be ugly ”

 The source added that James fled the campus after he allegedly committed the crime.

A Nigerian lady Naomi Oni, 21, was  hurled with acid all over her face  and other parts of her body at the  Westfield's Victoria's Secret store  in Stratford, East London,  last December. 

Naomi’s was left temporarily blind , in excruciating pains and in terrible need of surgeries to resort her face .

She said:  'I felt a splash – that’s when I thought, someone’s out to kill me. I just started running straight home. I knew it was acid. It feels like something is eating way at your skin. I felt it most on my scalp, more than my face. I  got  home shouting and banging on the door, screaming ‘acid, acid.’' It has been very difficult to come to terms with”

Narrating the intricacies involved in undergoing a treatment after an acid bath, Naomi said “ My doctors have been brilliant but it will take years of laser surgery to repair my face. There is only so much you can do at any one time – then there is long healing process before you can undergo the next stage of the treatment. It is only now that I had been able to have semi-permanent make-up on my face. ‘I loved having the treatment – it feels so good to have my eyebrows back.'What I loved about the treatment was its intricacy – it is a form of cosmetic tattooing.  It is the closest you can get to mimic the appearance of the original brow.
I did get a bit emotional when I saw them. It’s the first time I have seen myself with eyebrows for almost a year.” She said .

The police are investigating Naomi's attacker, a fellow Nigerian identified as Mary Konye, also 21, from Canning Town, East London.

Prosecutors were however shocked when the accused Konye said Naomi put her up to the acid attack.

Konye  said Naomi asked her to pour the acid on her and the acid attack was all planned by Naomi just to get sympathy.

Another  acid bath  victim, 22-year-old Chika Egbo regrets meeting her estranged lover   David Sulaimon.

 The acid attack left Chika , a mother of one  blind and disfigured from her head down to her chest and has turned a once pretty woman to a shadow of herself.

According to Chika a student  of the Enugu State College of Education, Suilaman was responsible for her stay at the Burnt Unit of the    University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja.

Matthew, Chika’s father blamed Suilaman for his daughter’s ordeal . He said Suilaiman came to ask for Chika’s hands in marriage but abandoned his daughter after she gave birth only to turn round and splash acid on her for no reason.

 “Lekan Sulaimon called me on the phone in March 2011  and  told me he wanted my  daughter’s hand in marriage and  I promised to speak with Chika.

My daughter said she loved Suilaman and would like to marry him. Sulaimon came with seven men and four women  to my hometown in  Enugu, for  the introduction and that was all I heard from him”

Mr Matthew said the relationship however turned sour after the Introduction ceremony.

Chika later discovered she was pregnant. She gave birth to a baby girl.

She said Suliaman and his family did not come back for the marriage and she and her family were left to cater for the child.

Chika added that Suliaman however called her to come to Lagos to see his mother to iron things out with her family but unknowing to her  it was a ploy to harm her.

Chika met Suliaman at Igando in Lagos but she said as he was leading her to his  mother's house, she said Suliaman brought out a substance from a polythene bag and poured it on her head.

Her scream attracted other passers-by and they pounced on Suilaman and handed him over to the police.

Doctors at  the University of Benin Teaching Hospital  battled to save the life of one Blessing Ikhumuhi, after she was bathe with acid .
Blessing's  estranged lover Cyril Okosun was fingered as the number one suspect in the dastardly crime.
According to Blessing, Cyril came to her house at Dumez-highway Benin City and poured the acid on her face after she told him she was done with the relationship.
Cyril who fled the house after he allegedly committed the crime was arrested and charged to Ikpoba Okha court.