Etim Effiong with agency report
Police in Abia State have arrested one Mrs Rose Uwaga for allegedly strangling her 83-year-old husband, Alhaji Isa Uwaga, in Umuahia.
Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Geoffrey Ogbonnaya, confirmed the arrest of the woman.
Ogbonnaya, who said the woman is in her early 70s, revealed that one of Uwaga’s children, Ibeabuchi, reported the incident to the police on July 2.
According to him, the matter has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department for proper investigation.
Ogbonnaya further stated that the remains of the deceased had been deposited in the morgue for autopsy to ascertain what actually killed him.
News Agency of Nigeria rep[orter, who spoke with Ogbonnaya on Wednesday evening, noted that the aged couple had a disagreement, which degenerated into fisticuffs at their residence at Ohobo-Afara Umuahia.
“During the fight, the man allegedly grabbed a machete to scare off the wife but the woman reportedly overpowered him.
“The machete fell off his hand and the woman, who is huge, pinned him down by the neck and strangled him to death,” a resident of the area said on condition of anonymity.
Another account had it that the deceased might have slumped and died ‘out of exhaustion after the quarrel with his wife.’
“It is not possible that a woman of about 73 years can muster the strength to strangulate a man,” a friend to the family said.
It was further learnt that the relations of the deceased rallied round to bury him shortly after his death, according to Islamic rites, before Ibeabuchi reportedly alerted the police.
The suspect, who was said to have immediately gone into hiding, was later arrested and detained by the police.
According to a police source, Ibeabuchi stated in his report that his parents were quarrelling at the time he left the house.
“He further stated that by the time he returned, he saw the lifeless body of his father in a sitting position in their house,” the source further said.