•I didn’t kill her deliberately —Suspect
•She was our breadwinner —Mother of deceased
The story of Rose Aifuwa, an Austria-based woman, who allegedly met her death in the hands of her lover, Festus Aimufua, drew the ire of the public including sympathy. The alleged killer was initially not available to tell his own side of the story, BANJI ALUKO, however, brings the various sides of the story including the statements of Festus.
In the world of Festus Aimufua, the death of Rose Aifuwa in his hands was just one misery he did not understand. Rose’s body had been discovered in the most grievous state early morning of the last Christmas Day at Upper Mission Road in Benin-City. Her beautiful body had been severely mutilated and disfigured beyond recognition. A side had been shattered as it was filled on a wall with parts of her intestines out. Here was a woman who had been enjoying her life in Austria until December when she met her death. Like many of her ilk, she was the breadwinner in her family and had been sustaining her immediate and extended family members for some years.
Festus, on his own, dealt in the sale of auto parts in Benin City. He was alleged to have received goods running into millions of naira from Rose, who was sending them to him from her base in Austria. He became the first suspect as he was the last person seen with her in the late hours of the Christmas Eve. He, however, denied a blue-murder of Rose, who he described as his lover. He provided graphic details of what transpired between late Rose and himself in the early hours of the last Christmas Day when Rose lost her life.
Aimufua, who is married with three kids, said, “She’s my lady friend and we started dating in February, 2014. She called me that day and I told her that I was close to her shop. On getting there, I parked my vehicle and entered her shop. I took a stick of cigarette from where she normally kept cigarettes. As I was about smoking, I told her that someone was in my car and that I needed to go and drop the person. I begged her to allow me to just go home.
“She declined and placed her hand on the door so as to prevent my exiting. I dropped her hand and told her that she was drunk. I knew that she was actually drunk because of the way she behaved anytime she was drunk. So, I removed her hand and tried to move past her. Anytime I visited her, she had this attitude of not allowing me to leave on time. This was common whenever she was drunk. At that moment, I got a slap on my face. I calmed down and lowered my head. Immediately I raised my head, I retaliated with a slap.
“She followed me and was trying to stop me. The boys who sat there also tried to stop me but I told them that I was leaving. Suddenly, she woke up a fellow who was sleeping. That person dragged me to a corner in the next compound. The guy was saying something that I did not understand. I just wanted to leave the place. As I was trying to approach my vehicle, I saw that the guy picked up his phone and started calling. So, I quickly entered my vehicle and put on the ignition. At that point, I saw her coming, trying to catch up with me before I could leave. I saw her pass through the back of my car to my door on the driver’s side. I quickly locked the doors through the central lock system.
All of a sudden as I was about moving, I saw her in front of my vehicle. I also saw two boys dragging her off the vehicle. I was now looking for a way to leave. I thought I found a way, so I zoomed off. Immediately I zoomed off, I was asking the boy that was with me in my car if we had hit anybody.
“I was just driving at a high speed and praying that I did not hit anybody. I did not stop until we got to somewhere on the Benin/Auchi expressway. That was when I parked my vehicle and looked at the car if I would see any sign that I hit someone. I was worried and kept asking the boy if I hit
somebody with the car. I was drunk at that point as I drank throughout the night of the Christmas Eve to the morning. I was still not satisfied. So, I rushed to a friend’s place and together we used his vehicle to trace if something untoward had happened. We went to the spot, three of us. On getting there, the shop was locked and we did not see anything. I called one boy, a family member of hers, to know if something bad had happened. I asked him to help me find out if I hit her or not. He later called me to say that they had discovered her at one hospital and that they had deposited money for her treatment.
“However, I asked my brother to go to the hospital to verify the story. He went there and came back to tell me that she was never at the hospital. He later called me that there was a body at Upper Mission Road junction. I called one of my friends to inform him of the situation on ground. We put our heads together and agreed that I should go to the police station. I went to Oregbeni Police Station. Now, I can’t sleep; I can’t eat. This was somebody that I was very close to. We went out together and did everything together. Youths around her shop went to my house to burn it. My younger brother and sister cannot even open their shops now because they are threatening to burn them. This is very sad,” he narrated when he was paraded at the command headquarters of the Edo State Police in Benin.
On the allegation that he owed Rose and refused to pay her, he said he did not owe her a penny. “The only goods she brought for me was in February when I met her. She brought the goods from Austria. I think she brought the goods about two years ago but she was not around. So she came to Nigeria around February and called me through one of her brothers. I bought the goods and I paid her,” he said.
Festus’ account is however, different from that of the aged mother of Rose, Madam Victoria Aifuwa, who claimed to have details of the relationship that existed between her daughter and Festus. She wept uncontrollably, raining curses on Festus for allegedly cutting the life of the family’s bread winner short.
She said: “I was with my daughter at her residence at Upper Mission on 24 December, 2014. When it was 7 pm, I told my daughter that I wanted to go home because I wasn’t feeling well, so she started laughing, calling me old woman. She asked me to come back the next day which was Christmas. Festus, my daughter’s boyfriend, was with my daughter with some of his friends drinking when I left them only for me to hear a knock on my gate the next day that my daughter’s dead body was lying at a junction.
“Later, the people that came were trying to hide the matter from me by saying it was a minor injury that she sustained. Some people said she was shot at the back while others said her intestine came out. The killer of my daughter said they both slept together and that when he wanted to leave my daughter held him insisting he must pay her the money he owed over some business transaction. It was at that point he knocked her down with his vehicle and dragged her on the ground which led to her death.
“My world has crumbled; I don’t know what to do; I am in hell without my daughter. She was all I had. Each time my daughter brought goods from abroad, I usually called Festus and after selling he won’t remit the money. I never knew the same man would eventually kill my daughter and leave me in deep pain”.
She went further: “My daughter even rented an apartment for him (the suspect), spending over N250,000 in the process because they were going out. My daughter said he wanted to uplift his social status and went as far as buying him a car because her friends usually mocked her for going out with someone that was not up to her standard. Besides, she had started building a house for him at Aduwawa.
“Festus controlled most of her business dealings in Nigeria. Recently, she complained to me that the bulk of her money unremitted was in the custody of Festus; so I advised her not to give him any other goods. My daughter trusted him and that was why she opened her heart to him by ensuring that he was in charge of her business. My daughter was the one that had been sustaining the family, now she is dead.
“My world has crumbled. I am begging the police and Governor Adams Oshiomhole to come and help me. They should ask Festus why he killed my daughter despite all my daughter did for his in life. I have never seen this kind of wickedness in my life. Instead of killing her he should have gone with the money. I am finished.”
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one of the residents of Upper Mission Road, where the body was deposited, said bruises on the deceased body gave him the inkling that she was tied to a car and dragged on a tarred road. “When I came out in the morning, I saw people shouting. So, I quickly rushed to the spot where I saw a dead woman with deep cuts all over her body.
Source:Tribune
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