Tragedy struck in Benue State when a 40-year old man decided to set himself and his girlfriend on fire in his apartment at No. 5 off Inikpi street in Makurdi, the Benue State capital.
The ugly incident took place on Friday night when the lover, having made up his mind to end his life and that of his 30-year old girlfriend, Shiminenge Pam; came back prepared that faithful day with a 4-litre jerrycan of Fuel.
According to Scudnews findings, the man simply known by his nickname, Nico, had being dating Shiminange for a couple of years and, earlier this year he decided to propose marriage to her with optimism that he would get a “yes”.
It is also gathered that in the course of their dating, Shiminenge found out that Nico had a wife and three kids whom he had abandoned in his village all this while they dated and primarily because of this reason; had turned down his marriage proposal.
A man who claimed to be a friend of the deceased Nico and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the deceased is popularly known by his nickname Nico and until his death, was a staff of Feed Africa Lodge, located at High-level, Makurdi while the girlfriend Shiminenge Pam, worked as an auxillary nurse with Lobi Hospital.
According to him, Nico was not happy when he found out his girlfriend,Shiminenge was keeping another relationship and feared she may had turned him down for that reason.
He confirmed The two had being dating for several years until the ugly incident.
A neighbor who spoke with Scudnews correspondent at the scene of the incident, said the suspect arrived his appartment as usual with the 4-litre jar which contained fuel and nobody suspected anything was about to go amiss.
He said the suspect had fastened the doors and windows to his appartment before sprinkling the fuel inside the room and ignited a fire that engulfed the entire room and that was when it dawned on the girlfriend that he really meant to kill them both.
She was said to had screamed for help but help couldn’t get to her immediately as the doors and windows were secured from inside and the flame was overwhelming.
By the time help came, it was already too late as the suspect died on the spot while the girlfriend gave up the ghost shortly after, at the Benue State Teaching Hospital, Makurdi.
Though the landlord, identified as Mr. Charles Akombo was not readily available for comments, another neighbor in the compound confirmed the incident adding that he couldn’t categorically state the motive behind the dastardly act.
Effort to get comment from the Benue State Police Command’s spokesperson, DSP Sewuese Anene, on the case, proved futile as several calls put across to her line alongside text messages, were not responded to.
