By Sampson Boroh
There was pandemonium at the Odede street in the Tombia Amassoma Road area of Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, after a 40-year-old man reportedly smashed his wife to death with sledge hammer.
The suspect, Patrick Markson, after killing the wife, took his own life, in an incident described as abominable act by residents and traditional chiefs in the area.
It was gathered that the incident occurred on Thursday morning following protracted marital dispute between the couple.
Sources told NIGER DELTA TODAY (NDT) Online that the deceased wife was on her sleep when the husband used the sledge hammer on her.
The deceased suspect, a civil servant with Yenagoa Local Government Area Council, was said to have hit his late wife on the head. The woman died on the spot.
However, after killing his wife, Markson reportedly drank poisonous substances and died hours later.
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It was learnt that the couple were having crisis in the marriage which produced six children.
Sources said the late husband laid close to the bleeding corpse of his wife and died.
The 35-year-old wife, simply identified as Hannah Markson, is from Okotiama community in Gbarain Clan, Yenagoa, the state capital.
The elder sister to the deceased wife, Mrs. Boufuru Timipre, said,”Yesterday we were frying garri, and the husband called me that he wanted to speak with my sister if we were together, and I told him that when I get to where she was I will pass the message.
“On reaching her I told her and immediately we tried reaching him but we couldn’t, later he called again but I have left where she was so he told me to tell her to bring garri for home use.
“This morning, the son called me that the mum was seen dead and he wants me to come, as I was going to the house I called him and ask of the day and he told me the dad too was dead. So when I got to their house I went straight to the room, and I saw them both lying on the bed dead, but I noticed a can of snipper by the bed and a big hammer.”
She added that they had matrimonial issues but she has often spoken and settled both of them as husband and wife.
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“The genesis of their problems was when my husband died and I had a contract which I engaged him to benefit, after the contract he got N800,000 for himself and never gave anything to the wife, she was bittered and reported the issue to me.
“I approached him and told him what he did was bad to had treated her like that, because I involved him due to the facts that he married my sister but I didn’t suspect it will result to this, look at not they are both gone”, she added.
A compound Chief and the head of Aputu family, Chief Anthony Jacob, said he was shocked by the development, saying “it is a sad development.”
Contacted on the development, the spokesman of the Bayelsa Police Command, Asinim Butswat, confirmed the development saying the corpses of the deceased couple have been evacuated to the mortuary.
