the reason why lekan killed our sister the Victim's family

More revelations are beginning to crop up as what could have possibly led Lekan Shonde to murder his wife, Ronke, with the late woman's family insisting he killed his wife because he was afraid she was going to leave him after she found out that he had a child outside wedlock.

Though the 57-year-old Shonde has insisted he did not kill Ronke, the family of the deceased has reacted to the allegations of infidelity he levelled against, saying they are all cooked up lies as their daughter was not that kind of a person.

The only surviving child of the family, Bolatito Bewaji, who is Ronke's elder sister, told Punch Newspaper that Shonde allegedly killed her sister due to jealousy and insecurity especially with the discovery that he had a child he did not tell her about and that this had really put a strain on the marriage.

Bolatito said Ronke had endured a long period of domestic abuse, and had almost packed out of their home in December, 2015, insisting that her sister would not have died if she had listened when she (Bolatito) and their mother begged her to leave the house after a series of abuse.

“The first case of abuse which I can remember, happened sometime in 2012. The most recent was in December, 2015, when we were still mourning the death of my brother. My mother was in the house with them when he started to verbally assault her.

It was getting heated and my mum had to immediately leave the house. My mum called me and I went to a police station closest to the house. The policemen there said I could not report the case since I was not the victim.

I went to their house and insisted that Ronke should leave the house but Lekan refused to let her go, and this created a scene on their street.

My mother said I must make sure she packed her belongings. I started begging her to follow me, and she stood up and went ahead of me. But as I stepped out, I discovered that she had gone back. When I returned to their house, I found her in bed.

I called her and said, ‘my sister, do you want to die? We don’t want to lose you. We just lost our second born. I know you are a loving person and you care about your family, but you have to quit this marriage.’ At this point, Ronke started crying,” Bolatito said.

She added that Ronke's problems that led to her death started after a woman turned up in their home with a child.

“My sister called me and said her husband had a child outside wedlock. She said somebody brought the child to the house and said her husband was the father. She was shattered by that news and from that time, she started keeping to herself.

Lekan asked her to forgive him, saying it was the devil’s handiwork. He would kneel and beg in the kitchen and bathroom. He promised to do a DNA test to know if the child was truly his own, but he didn’t do it. He started sending people to beg her. But she decided to stop talking to him.”

Asked about the infidelity accusation, Bolatito debunked the allegation, saying her never had any relationship out of wedlock, as the said relationship between Ronke and the manager in question was just professional.

She also punched holes into Shonde's claims that he bought two cars for his late wife, saying that too was false.

“She has been struggling to raise N70,000 to change the gearbox of her car. My sister would sometimes ask me for money for her children’s school fees and other things, but he (Lekan) would check her account and ask who sent the money and they would start fighting over it.

Since we lost our brother, the two of us became close and we promised to stay together to take care of our mum. But now, see what he has done to our family,” she concluded.

Another family member added that when Ronke refused to take any action on the child born out of wedlock, her husband checked her phones to know if she was dating another person in retaliation, and was always monitoring her.

“He would pick her phone and would query her on numbers not in her contact, he would ask who it was and why he was calling. Before she got her job, whenever she was going for an interview, he would commission a motorcyclist to trail her and check if she actually went for the interview or not.