I mistakenly stabbed him to death to defend myself —Fashion designer

A 32-year-old fashion designer, Omowumi Oyapitan, who was arrested by men of Ogun State Police command for allegedly stabbing Mohammed Ahmed, aged 30, to death, has said that the jagged bottle she collected from him and tried to scare him off with, mistakenly caught him on the side of his neck.

The police spokesman in the state, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, had said that the suspect was apprehended by detectives at Onipanu divisional headquarters when a report was received from the Managing Director of a guest house, Mr Stephen Udo that an argument between the suspect and Ahmed led her into stabbing him in the neck.

By the time Divisional Police Officer, CSP Bamidele Job, and his men got to the scene, they met Ahmed in a pool of blood. While they picked the suspect, the victim was rushed to State Hospital, Ota, where he was confirmed dead by the doctor on duty.

The PPRO disclosed that the victim had been hibernating in the hotel after Christmas celebration, after allegedly stealing over N600,000 belonging to his boss at Hayorlak Hotel where he was working as bartender.

It was further gathered that he used part of the stolen money to lodge some of his friends, and that he had an altercation with one of those he lodged in the hotel because he accused him of stealing part of his money.

This led to hot exchange of words between them, resulting in the suspect, who claimed to know the other boy in their street, intervening.

Allegedly not pleased with her intervention, he was said to have punched her in the mouth. In retaliation, she broke a bottle and used it to stab the deceased on his neck.

In an interview with the Nigerian Tribune, Omowumi, who also graduated in Computer Science from National Open University in Abeokuta, said that she mistakenly stabbed the deceased when he was beating her.

According to her, “he (the deceased) was being very aggressive and was trying to stab me with the bottle, but I collected it from him and made the mistake of stabbing him.”

On what led to the fight between her and the deceased, Omowumi said: “There is this boy I know in my area. He and the deceased had issue and I was trying to make peace between them. the next I knew, the guy actually punched me and threw water all over me. He was drinking with one of his friends and he took one of the bottles they drank from, broke it and wanted to stab me with it. Trying to defend myself, I struggled to take the bottle from him and tried to scare him off by hitting him somewhere else, but he staggered, which made the bottle to hit him on the neck.

“He removed it and blood started gushing. It was a small piece of broken bottle. I tried to put pressure on the spot but he pushed me away and I fell down.

He walked out of the hotel room. After the scenario, the manager of the hotel didn’t let me go. The staff called the police.

“When my street brother saw what happened, he rushed to get a tricycle to convey him to the hospital.  While he was returning with the tricycle, we saw that the deceased had already slumped.”

The state Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole had ordered the transfer of the suspect to homicide section of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department for investigation and subsequent prosecution.