Operatives of the Bayelsa state police command have arrested a housewife identified as Mrs. Eniye Zuokemefa Peter over alleged complicity in the killing of her lecturer husband at the Bayelsa College of Education in Sagbama, Enebraye Zuokemefa Peter.
The arrest of Mrs. Eniye Zuokemefa Peter, which was carried out on Sunday night, was based on petitions from the deceased family and on complaint of previous threats to his life during domestic squabbles on alleged infidelity and having two children from another woman outside marriage.
Our reporter gathered that the deceased was shot three times by unknown gunmen in a redon Friday after transacting business at a Point-of-Sale (POS) along the old Assembly quarters road in Ekeki area of Yenagoa, the Bayelsa state capital.
A family member said that the accused wife had on several occasion threatened to kill her husband over allegation of fathering children outside their marriage due to her inability to bear him a child, ‘the marriage is filled with turbulent tide with the woman packing out of her matrimonial home on several occasion but they recently made up when he arrived Yenagoa from a study trip abroad.’
It was also gathered that the deceased lecturer had in the past came under armed attack at his home by unknown gunmen, ‘he was always heard telling family members and close friends to hold his wife responsible if anything happened to him.’’
It was gathered that the police are on the trail of some four persons suspected to have killed the university lecturer and were last seen driving a red coloured tinted Toyota, ’’the vehicle was seen moving suspiciously around the resident of the deceased and were later seen sharing monies at a drinking spot few meters away from the scene of the crime.’’
Contacted on the development, the spokesman of the Bayelsa police command, Asinim Butswat, confirmed the arrest but said she was arrested based on ‘previous threats’.
Already, the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) Worldwide has called on security agencies and the Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, to fish out the killers of an Ijaw youth leader, Enebraye Zuokemefa Peter.
The IYC President, Peter Timothy Igbifa in a statement condemned the killing of Zuokemefa describing it as barbaric, unacceptable and irresponsible. Igbifa said the deceased was a firm believer in Ijaw cause, an apostle of peace and a scholar, who never deserved to die in such a violent manner.
He said the deceased was one of the staunch members of the IYC, who once contested the presidency and secretarial position of the council adding that he pursued all his ambitions peacefully without resort to violence.
Igbifa noted that the IYC under his leadership would not accept anything other than thorough investigations into the circumstances that led to his killing, unmasking the identities of the gunmen and prosecuting them.
