I Didn’t Kill My Pregnant Wife, A 37-Year-Old Man Confesses

A 37-year old man, Mathew Ankyio, has denied killing his wife, saying she fell during an argument with him, hit her chest on an iron cabinet and subsequently gave up the ghost at the Wuse General Hospital, Abuja.

The Information technology worker said he could not explain the reason for the domestic issue that led to his wife’s demise last Thursday.

Ankyio, who is in police custody for homicide, said he had just returned home in the night when his wife, who was eight months pregnant, held on to his shirt over an unstated reason.

He said, “I was surprised because we didn’t have any issue before I left the house in the morning. I was telling her to leave my shirt and allow me to go and buy recharge card because I needed to call a client who owed me some money.

“I broke her hold on my shirt and she fell in the direction of an iron cabinet and I think she hit her chest on the cabinet.

“I pulled her up from the floor and she was shouting ‘Jesus, Jesus.’ She said she was not feeling well and went to our next door neighbour’s room.”

Ankyio explained that he went out to get recharge card, but decided to come back and check on his wife.

He said he found her in a terrible condition while the neighbour was praying for her.

“I found that her condition was bad and deteriorating, so I quickly got a taxi and rushed her to Wuse General Hospital and a doctor attended to her. I was surprised when the doctor told me some minutes later that my wife was dead. Oh God, this was a woman I was married to for nine years, what would I do now,” he sobbed.

The bereaved husband said he had relocated their three children to his grandmother in Benue State, adding that he paid N35,000 for the removal of the unborn baby.

When asked to defend allegations by neighbours that he usually quarrelled with his wife, the IT worker denied it, saying the people often misconstrued his discussions with his wife because they did not understand his Tiv language.

Asked about his in-laws’ reaction to their daughter’s death, the suspect stated that they did not raise any fuss about it “because my in-laws didn’t know me as a bad person.”

He added that the wife’s family members had approached the police to close the case so that they could plan their daughter’s burial.