A woman from Delta State who effectively hid her adulterous relationship from her husband, Lekan Onipede, is now on the run after she viciously attacked him with boiling water and pursued him with a knife.
The woman, Rosemary David, had a son for Onipede, a 31-year-old indigene of Ondo State, about 11 years ago, when he was 20. While still living with him under the concept of common law marriage, and in what would appear to be a case of polyandry, she allegedly hooked up with another man in Delta State and had two other children (a boy and a girl) with the man, and then passed them off as Onipede’s children.
Over the years, David perfectly juggled the two ‘husbands’ in Ondo and Delta states, co-habiting with one or the other in a near seamless manner until the bubble burst, and set the stage for the heinous attack on Onipede after accusing him of adultery.
The tale began when David who was living with her parents in Ore, Ondo State, got into a relationship with Onipede and became pregnant.
With Onipede insistent on not allowing her abort the pregnancy, she dropped out of school and later gave birth to a baby boy. After the birth of the baby, Onipede relocated to Lagos to study at a technical school and also seek means of earning income to support David and the baby. While Onipede struggled to find his feet in Lagos, David alternated between living with her parents and Onipedes’ parents in Ondo State on the one hand and her aunt in Delta State on the other hand.
Two years later, Onipede completed his training at the technical school at Abule-Ado, Lagos State, got a job and then invited David to come and live with him. This began their ‘marital’ journey. A few weeks later, David informed him that she was pregnant. Quite upset with the news, Onipede expressed his displeasure, but promised to do his utmost to cater for the family.
As it would later turn out, David regularly traveled to Delta State to visit her aunt and her mother, during which she would stay for three weeks or one month. She continued to make the frequent visits to Delta State until she gave birth to a third child.
The first twist in the tale occurred four years ago, when Onipede and his elder brother attended a wedding in Delta State, where they met one of the brothers of David and his friend named Okey.
When Okey learnt that David was married to Onipede, he laughed scornfully and said: “Okay, let’s see after the wedding because we have something to talk about.” Okey exchanged numbers with Onipede and they kept in touch.
When the duo spoke, Okey told Onipede that his ‘wife’ had another husband in Delta State. Despite the protestations of Onipede, Okey challenged him to trail David to Delta whenever she embarks on another visit to the state. Still unbelieving, he did not act on the advice until the 2014 Easter period when David traveled to Delta State with the third baby.
Onipede called Okey, who urged him not to believe David’s story of going to visit her aunt. Acting on this advice, Onipede trailed David to Delta State and spent three days searching for her. On the third day, he finally saw her with another man. Heartbroken, Onipede returned to Lagos the same day, after discovering his wife’s infidelity.
Recalling what he overheard in the bar that night, Onipede told Sunday Sun: “As I sat at the bar monitoring my wife, one of the men seated there said that he did know what Rosemary always went to do in Lagos. Every time, she would go to Lagos and leave her husband here at home. I am sure it is because of the first wife of the man she is married to. I returned home, I took my two children that Rosemary left behind for blood test since DNA test is expensive. The only child who had the same blood group as my was the first child I had with Rose in secondary school. When she came back from Delta, I told her that I got a new job and said that she should go and do a blood group test as the company required the whole family to do such. When she did it, the second and third children had the same blood group but it was not the same with their mothers blood group or mine. That was when I knew the children were not mine.”
Based on this discovery, Onipede told David he didn’t want anything to do with her again. She left for her parent’s place in Ore with the children.
Despite the separation he continued to cater for the children. Then one day David called and said she wanted to visit Lagos to buy jewellery and sell in Ore, Ondo State. Out of a sense of charity, Onipede said he invitOndo State. Out of a sense of ed her to stay in his apartment to ease her accommodation problem while in Lagos. Upon her arrival, she tried to perform her wifely duties, like cooking and cleaning. To discourage her, he casually mentioned that he was in a relationship with a young lady, who was already pregnant for him and would give birth soon.
The revelation enraged David and she extracted the lady’s number from Onipede’s phone. She then called and threatened her. David allegedly made several unsuccessful efforts to start up a fight between her and Onipede. On Friday of that week, he left for work and deliberately stayed back in the office to avoid her. But on Saturday night she called him and pleaded with Onipede to return home because she needed money to make up her fare to Delta State. The next day, he went home and gave her the money she wanted and laid down on a settee in the room to rest.
It was at this point that David made her Jezebelic move. From behind, she poured a pot of boiling water on his back. When he screamed and turned towards her, she did the same to his stomach. With his body severely scalded, Onipede rushed out, calling his landlady for assistance. She advised him to go to the Police station to file a report. Mounting his motorcycle, Onipede headed to the police station as David continued to rain curses on him. Enraged that he left her in the house, David allegedly picked up a knife, flagged down a motorcyclist and instructed him to follow Onipede’s motorcycle. With both motorcycles trapped in traffic, she continued to hurl insults on Onipede while passers-by watched her. Soon enough, people who didn’t know the facts joined in insulting him for sleeping with a prostitute and not paying her. The apparent support of the by-standers fueled David’s anger, prompting her to pick up a plank by the roadside and almost hit him with it before she was over-powered by some men who promised to deal with him instead. As the argument was still going on, Rose brought out the knife and tried to stab him. Upon seeing that she had been held back, Onipede told the sudden roadside jury that David was his wife and he was heading to the hospital to treat burns he got after she poured hot water on him. Instantly, the people turned against her and forcefully dragged her to Area K Police Station, Okokomaiko.
She was promptly arrested, detained and asked to make a written statement. As this progressed, Onipede’s burn wounds had become critical necessitating the police to transfer him to Ikeja General Hospital, where he was given proper medical attention.
The next twist in the tale happened when the brother of the lady, who is a policeman attached to the Iyana-Ira Police Station allegedly facilitated her release by taking somebody else to the station to secure bail for her. Though David promised at the police station to apologise to Onipede, she never did so or bother to visit him at the hospital.
“I never knew she was going to react like this or even get angry. We are no longer together so I was shocked when she took the news personal and attacked me with hot water. Actually I saw the pot in the bedroom but I never checked what was in it,” Onipede said, recalling that terrible day.
As it stands now, the police are said to be making efforts to track down David who is on the run.
