News

How unknown gunmen left woman ‘blind’, raped her only daughter and killed her husband in Edo

Published

7 years ago

August 27, 2017

An attack by masked gunmen has left a household in Benin City, Edo State, desolate, with its head killed, the only daughter raped and wife partially blind and traumatized.

But, clue as to the motive for the tragic incident, now being investigated by the police, has remained blowing in the air, even as the perpetrators had vanished like ghost leaving on their trail sorrow, tears and blood.

The marauders had, according to the widow, Mr John Agbonlahor, Elizabeth, stormed their residence on No 5 Adesuwa Street in Benin in an Ash coloured Toyota Camry car at about 9pm on the fateful day, while the family was busy watching Television.

Some hard rapping on the door, followed by banging and shouts of: “Where is Agbonlahor?”, signalled trouble and generated fear in the members of the family. But, paralyzed with fear, they could not open the door, forcing the irate assailants break it down.

“Immediately they found their way into our sitting room, I tried to beg them and to inquire why they were looking for my husband. They shouted at me saying, ‘do you think that we are here to play?’ And they started beating me. In the process, one of them used his gun to hit me on my left eye,” recalled Mrs. Agbonlahor.

Her daughter, Prayer, made a bid to escape, but was apprehended and raped. The girl’s desperate shouts attracted her father from his room to rush to the scene. He was shot on the chest and died on the spot, said the widow.

Mrs Agbonlahor said after shooting her husband, the gunmen fled, leaving her in severe trauma and panic.

“I could not imagine seeing my husband killed in my presence, after raping my daughter. I was also in great pains because of the injury on my eye. However, I managed to report the matter to the police who arrived at the scene and deposited his body at the mortuary, while my daughter was taken to the hospital for treatment.”

The bereaved woman is yet to come to terms with the tragedy.

Her words: “In fact, I am dumbfounded at the whole thing. Now, I have been made to become a widow overnight, my daughter was assaulted, while I am partially blind. What is my offence?”

Feeling no longer safe, Mrs Agbonlahor has relocated to their village with her daughter for fear of her husband’s killers returning to eliminate him.

An extract from the Crime Diary of State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Edo State Police Command, dated July 27, 2017 and signed by Mrs Carol Onyeka Afegbai, CSP, confirmed the incident.

Meanwhile, the body of the deceased had been deposited at the mortuary, while Mrs Agbonlahor and her daughter were taken to the hospital for treatment.