Domestic Violence: Late Lawyer’s Husband, Anthony Ikpeama, Family, Speak Over Her Controversial Murder [VIDEO]

*Anthony Denies Killing Wife
*Late Adaeze’s Mother, Brother Counter’s Claim

Late Lawyer’s Husband, Anthony Ikpeama has denied killing the mother of his children who was 6 months pregnant as at the time of her death.

Anthony made this rebuttal in an interview by Tvc Crime watch.

THENIGERIALAWYER recalls that cyberspace has been awash with news of the death of Adaeze Ikpeama, Esq., who was allegedly beaten to death by her husband, Anthony.

During the interview, Anthony claimed he did not kill his wife as she was the mother of his two children and was pregnant with his baby.  He claimed the whole drama began when his wife complained of having pain in her stomach, so he told her to withstand the pain till the next day because there was curfew.

According to him, his late wife could not bear the pain, so he decided to rush her to Doreen hospital which has been their hospital since they got married.

After getting to the hospital, the emergency doctor wanted to start treatment on her but he stopped the doctor because he needed to discuss with their gynecologist, who already knew her medical records.  Anthony called the gynecologist, who told him’;

Anthony called the Gynaecologist and the Gynecologist told him to drop the call for him(gynecologist)  to call the hospital directly. He(Gynecologist)  advice them on how to proceed, while promising to come over himself, the following day.

The owner of hospital (supposed Surgon) in his presence proceeded to bring out the foetus, which was alive, he cleaned it up and told him that her uterus has been ruptured and the placenta had shifted.

This procedure resulted in severe loss of blood by his wife.

“So, the doctors brought out the baby alive, pulled out the uterus and cleaned it up and tied it back and the owner of the hospital by himself cut out the appendix, which made her lose so much blood, Anthony said.

He also said that he was informed that she had only 1pint of blood on her, whereas a normal person’s blood volume was 5 pints.

At that stage, his mother-in-law called his brother-in-law, Bob, who, on arrival, became belligerent, as he felt the hospital would not give him my wife’s status report. Hospital staff then asked him (Mr. Anthony) to control his brother-in-law’

“The staff then moved the deceased from the I.C Unit upstairs where she was to the main I.C Unit ground floor of the hospital. This necessitated disconnecting the deceased’s ventilator,” Anthony said.

He said he accompanied them while they undertook the shift, and in the process, he noticed that his wife was swooning; when he drew the attention of the medical staff to it, they asked him to excuse them, while they cleaned and re-fit the ventilator’

When asked whether there was ever a case of domestic violence in his home, he said NO.

“Never! All the time I have married my wife, I have never touched her. We had misunderstandings like husband and wife but it has never led to anybody slapping each other.” he said.

His mother-in-law, Mrs. Carol John, however, denied this, insisting that he was so physically abusive of her that she lived in constant dread of him.

This, according to her, i.e., the deceased’s mother, prompted the latter to advise her to end the marriage.’

“I have observed that. I said no, this is an abusive marriage. I interviewed her and Adaeze said she don’t want trouble, that we should give her husband time.

“With time, he will change and I said no, nobody changes. Let us leave now that is not too late.” the mother said.

This was corroborated by the deceased’s brother, Bob Manuel John, who said that a day before her death, she had confided in her that she planned to end the marriage due to her husband’s persistent physical abuse.

He added that he then left briefly, and on his return, he met the television sets on the housebroken, and on challenging Mr. Anthony about it, the latter told him to mind his business. Bob said he then strongly advised the deceased to leave the marriage, upon which she demurred, citing her pregnancy.

The deceased’s brother further said, he was present during the period of her recovery – between 6am and 7am. Unfortunately,  he said, the hospital informed him that her condition had deteriorated; this prompted her being returned to the IC (Intensive Care) unit. He accompanied them there – together with the deceased’s husband.

On arrival, Mr. Anthony wondered loudly why the deceased was under a ventilator and wanted to know whether she was being treated for Covid-19. The duty nurse denied it and asked him to leave her bedside as she was recuperating. He was adamant and attempted to remove the ventilator. When the nurse tried to stop him he slapped her,  pushed her away and proceeded to shake the deceased’s bed violently.

According to Bob, when he, (Bob) too, tried to intervene, Mr. Anthony pushed him away and, standing over the deceased, he started accusing her loudly of killing her foetus. This allegedly provoked the deceased’s brother, who assaulted the suspect and they went at each other for some time, until they were separated by nurses.

It was around this time that the deceased’s brother (Bob) said he noticed that she was shaking violently, with her eyes intermittently opening and closing. It was apparent that her condition her taken a turn for the worse.

When he was asked at what point, did he realise that his late sister was dead?

He opined that it was upon the violent shaking of her hospital bed by the suspect, because at that point, she started speaking incoherently and unintelligibly.

Bob went on to state that the next day, Mr Ikpeama called for the transfer of his wife to another hospital and despite his protests, Mr ikpeama claimed being her next of kin and her husband, he has the right to do that. After getting to the next hospital, they confirmed his sister’s death but someone claimed that  her hands were shaking, so he suggested they take her back to Doreen Hospital.

Unfortunately, instead of doing so, the Anthony directed the vehicle to a police station. His ( Bob’s) pleas to proceed to the hospital having fallen on deaf ears, he finally confirmed by himself (according to him, ‘from the yellowish colour of her eyes), that his sister had, indeed, died.

Bob further asserted that a cousin who lived with the deceased (Adaeze) and her husband(Anthony) confirmed to him that the suspect was in the habit of physically abusing his deceased wife. This, according to Mr. Bob, was corroborated by the gatekeeper of the deceased’s house.

He said “my cousin who was living with my late sister confirmed that her husband was always beating her and he used to punch her in the stomach severally apart from that, the gateman also confirmed that his late sister’s husband has killed her.

This prompted Mr. Bob and the deceased’s mother to examine the CCTV footage in the house – only to discover that it was switched off. This heightened their suspicions as they were aware that the  CCTV cameras were always switched on, as their house enjoyed virtually uninterrupted public power supply.

The police said their investigation into the incident is proceeding apace, whilst the suspect continues to plead his innocence and the deceased’s relatives insist that he is responsible for her death.