SORDID ACCOUNT OF A MOTHER-IN-LAW: MY SON’S WIFE FEIGNED MISCARRIAGES, KILLED HIM OUT OF JEALOUSY
Boladale Bamidele, septuagenarian mother of Bolu Bamidele, the young man who was set ablaze by his wife, Ifeoluwa, in Osogbo, Osun State has claimed that her daughter-in-law killed him out of jealousy and even accused her of feigning miscarriages.
It will be recalled that Bolu who lived in Cairo, Egypt, returned to Nigeria before the last Eid-el Kabir celebration. His wife reportedly doused him with fuel and set the entire house on fire which resulted to his death while she ran away and was said to have killed herself days later.
According to the septuagenarian who lives at number 22, Abeobi, Onitea area of Osogbo, Osun state, she had a dream that something bad was going to happen to her son.
Her words: “I had a dream which was so frightening and I woke up suddenly sweating profusely. I dreamt that someone came to my door, kept knocking and asked me to warn Bolu, that a woman wanted to kill him. When I woke up I told my husband about the dream and he advised we should call Bolu and his wife and explain the dream to them which we did.”
Explaining further, Boladale said “On the day of the incident, my husband and I went to Bolu’s house. When we got there, Bolu was sleeping. I gave Ifeoluwa the milk I bought for them and we left. Later in the night, Ifeoluwa called on the phone screaming that Bolu was dating someone else and had even impregnated the lady. I begged her to calm down, that first in the morning both of them should come over to our house so we can resolve it.”
“Immediately the call ended, my daughter who was living with them called that I should start coming, that Bolu and his wife were fighting and she had set the house ablaze with her brother inside. Bolu was rescued by neighbors and rushed to the hospital where he later died. But before he died, he however shared what happened.”
“He said Ifeoluwa locked the door after setting him on fire, and he wanted to escape through the kitchen, but when he realized that the gas cylinder was there, he felt it was too risky because she locked the main door. So, he went back to the room again, opened the shower and started pouring water on himself. It was at that point that my daughter and other neighbors rescued him and took him to the hospital. Unfortunately, he died.”
Recounting how Ifeoluwa became her daughter-in-law, Boladale said, “When Bolu first brought Ifeoluwa home as the wife he wanted to get married to, some of our family members didn’t approve of her but Bolu insisted that she was his choice and the one he wanted to get married to. We had no option but to accept her into the family.”
“It was when she got pregnant that my son said we should quickly go and ask for her hand in marriage. We then went to pay her dowry but unfortunately, she lost the pregnancy the next day after the introduction, and several others afterwards.”
”They got married on September 4th, last year. Bolu stayed in the country for a while before travelling back to Egypt on April 23rd, this year. The last miscarriage Ifeoluwa had was on the day Bolu was returning to Egypt where he schooled and worked. On that night, Bolu rushed her to the hospital, as she wasn’t feeling well. He had to go to the airport so as not to miss his flight after Ifeoluwa’s parents said they would take care of her at the hospital. However, after Bolu left for the airport, the hospital refused to carry out evacuation for her because they needed someone to sign for her. I stood in for my son and signed.”
“Thinking about everything now, it seems like she deliberately got rid of the pregnancies she had. There was a day Ifeoluwa came home and fainted and when I asked her what happened, she said she went for an abortion because she didn’t want to have a disabled baby. I think she was getting rid of her pregnancies probably because she didn’t want Bolu to leave her behind in Nigeria. That is probably the reason she deliberately made sure she lost her pregnancies. Bolu lived in Egypt and she wanted to live there with him.”
“Ifeoluwa killed him out of sheer jealousy. Whenever she saw any lady’s name on his phone, Ifeoluwa would start causing trouble even if it was his sister’s number. We usually advised Ifeoluwa to let go of her jealous attitude but there is a limit to which we can interfere in their marital issues. All we could do was to advise her to stop being unnecessarily jealous.”
Continuing Boladale said, “Ifeoluwa said in her suicide note that they should bury her close to Bolu but it is impossible because Bolu was a Catholic and would be buried in a Catholic graveyard. Where we bury men is different from where we bury women.”
“We can’t do that. Another reason is that she was a member of Celestial Church, it is therefore not possible to bury her in a catholic grave yard.”
“Assuming they died together, it might be possible. Boluwatito was my last child, he was studying in Egypt as a flight officer and at the same time doing some menial jobs. He had just one year to complete his study.”
@ Vanguard Newspaper