The Bayelsa State Police Command has arrested two persons in separate incidents for allegedly killing wife and mother in the state.
A suspect, Christopher Chiabata, a 56-year-old man was nabbed for killing his 46-year-old wife with mortar pestle during a domestic fight.
Chiabata, who is an indigene of Anambra State, confessed to newsmen on Tuesday while being paraded at the police headquarters in Yenagoa that he hit his wife with a pestle during a heated argument arising from the sales of their farm produces.
He said: “It is a long story. Any time my wife went to the market, she would carry all the money that we made from the farm and put it in her pocket. It is getting to two years now, she has not given me any account.
“When I asked her to give me the account, she usually refused. And as we went to the farm, a quarrel burst out. When we returned home, she packed my belongings and threw them outside.
“From there, I became very angry and had to hit her head with a pestle and she died.”
It was revealed that Chiabata drank a substance suspected to be a sniper to take his own life when he realised that he had killed his wife.
But he was said to be resuscitated and rescued by neighbours before he was arrested by the police.
In another incident, one Lazarus Josiah, aged 29, was arrested for allegedly hacking his 58-year-old mother, Mrs. Chain Bishop, to death at Odioma in Brass Local Government Area of the state.
The suspect, who confessed to the crime, said he suspected his mother to be a witch, claiming that her mother was responsible for his retrogression and lack of progress in life.
He confessed: “l used my bare hands to kill her because she wanted me to stay with her forever and I was not making any progress.”
Parading the suspects, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Mike Okoli, said the command also arrested a five-man notorious armed robbery gang that specialised in masquerading as a government task force to rob unsuspecting members of the public.
He said that locally-made pistols and live ammunition were recovered from them.
Also paraded was one Monk Steamer, who allegedly led armed men to the compound of one Etolor Omolojo, shot him dead and injured others over community election at Amabolou in Ekeremor LGA of the state.
The police also paraded some officials of the Bayelsa State Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) for attempting to sell 444 pieces of mattresses belonging to the agency.
One of the suspected mattress thieves, Mr. Doloebiowei Kime, from Amassoma in Southern Ijaw LGA, who described himself as a Director in SEMA, said he and other officials decided to sell the truckload of mattresses because both the state and the federal government did not give them money to distribute the items to the target flood victims.
The CP said during a sting operation, seven suspected cult members were arrested while one tricycle, three locally-made pistols and three mobile phones were recovered from them.
Addressing journalists, Okoli cautioned criminally-minded elements to steer clear of the state as Bayelsa would no longer be conducive for their nefarious activities.
He said: These successes recorded within a few days wouldn’t have been possible without the cooperation of the members of the public.
“The command under my watch will continue to work with other security agencies and members of the public to reduce crime to the barest minimum in the state.”
