IN a story which aptly illustrates the darkness and inscrutability of the human mind, a lady, Anita Ofili, was arrested on March 26 for allegedly stabbing her friend, Glory Okon, to death in her apartment at Greenville Estate, Ajah, Lagos State, 10 years after the offence which culminated in the murder. According to Ofili, the deceased had to die because she had snatched her (Ofili’s) boyfriend about 10 years earlier, and she had baited her and waited for so long in order to have her pound of flesh! According to reports, the occupants of the building were alerted by a shout for help from Ofili’s apartment at around 1.20p.m. on the ill-fated day. They forced the door open and found Ofili literally murdering Okon. The victim was rushed to the General Hospital on Lagos Island but it was too late: she had lost too much blood.
Said a tenant in the building: “The landlord’s daughter was the one that heard the scream. She peeped through the window and saw a masked person stabbing a lady. She rushed and called her father, who alerted other tenants that forced the door open, only to discover that the masked person was Anita Ofili. The whole room was filled with blood. We discovered that the victim was still breathing. We had to tie Ofili’s legs and hands to prevent her from escaping. Before the arrival of the police, Ofili did not show any sign of remorse. She said she would explain to the police what happened. She claimed the lady in question was her friend and that her action was in revenge for what she did to her.” Reports suggested that the suspect and the deceased had been friends for close to two decades and had attended the same tertiary institution, and that the tramadol pack suspected to have been used in drugging the deceased before killing her in cold blood was recovered by the police.
Hear Ofili: “Glory and I had been good friends for years, but she betrayed that friendship by snatching my boyfriend. I had the intention of marrying him. Her action strained the relationship and we went our separate ways for 10 years. We only reconciled two weeks ago. I invited her to my house and the rest you know.” The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin had this to say: “At 5.50p.m. on March 26, a resident of Greenville Estate came to the station to report that he heard someone screaming from the room of one Annie Ofili, that himself and other tenants quickly rushed to the room and forced the door open, only to meet Annie on top of Glory Okon, who came to visit her… Upon the information, a team of detectives moved to the scene. The suspect was arrested, the knife recovered, while the corpse was deposited at the Mainland General Hospital mortuary, Yaba, for autopsy and preservation. The suspect has been transferred to the SCIID, Yaba, for discreet investigation.”
To be sure, this macabre tale of betrayal and revenge that took all of 10 years to unfold must have sent chills down the spine of Nigerians. It is indeed difficult not to shudder at this confession of a bitter woman who lay in wait for 10 years, taking her time to nurture her hurt and all the while plotting how to avenge what she thought was the unforgivable sin of luring her boyfriend away from her, which sin to her deserved only the punishment of death. There was no report regarding whether she made known the depth of annoyance at her friend’s action to her other friends or family, and what their reaction was. It would certainly have been better for the incident to have put a stop to their friendship, with this perhaps helping to prevent the resort to the gory killing. Nonetheless, the fact that she could calmly confess to the crime shows that we have here a premeditated and calculated act not underlined by any thought as to its wrongfulness.
Without delving into the psychology of how painful and passionate the act of emotional betrayal could be, it is still the case that nothing justifies the recourse to self-help and the imposition of the punishment of death on another person. There is a sense in which the society exists to take care of all disagreements through clear rules and regulations and we expect the same rules to be applied to their full extent in this case of deliberate refusal to follow the rules. Society would be perpetually uninhabitable if all aggrieved persons routinely took the law into their own hands and imposed punishment for alleged wrongs. In the instant case, the story is made all the more pathetic because the victim is going to have no opportunity to state her own side of the story, good or bad.
Nigerians must learn not to descend into self-help when wronged as that would destroy the essence of the society. Getting Ofili to face the full weight of law over the crime she has committed should help to prevent others from getting into the same frame of mind that jettisons the options provided by society in addressing grievances and privately imposes punishment on offenders.
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