The man who killed his child and burnt his wife with hot iron remained adamant that he has no regret over the wicked treatment he meted out to his wife. Henry Nnamdi who is now cooling off his heels in the Kirikiri Maximum prisons, Apapa, Lagos gave a chilling account of how he gave his two-year-old son over seven powerful blows on the neck and head before the child gave up the ghost.Giving a blow-by-blow account on why and how he killed the child, he said on the fateful day, he went out as he was remembering how he visited his father and sighted his wife, Mercy in the room and his father prevented him from entering the room. According to him, he has been suspecting what his father was having amorous affairs with his wife. "But I eventually confirmed my suspicion when my father refused me from entering his room because, my wife was inside. How my wife escaped from the room, I can't still tell. I swear to God, I saw her inside my fathers room."
He said since that day, his conscience has been asking him many questions, "My conscience will be asking me if I am sure I am the father of Ebuka, my son. When I look at Ebuka, he looked more of my father." He said on the fateful day, the question came to his mind again and he decided to go out and have some drinks at least to calm his nerves "when I came back home, I started ironing for my customers and my wife was sleeping, but the question came up in my mind again and again.
"The voice was telling me that I should clear the air by asking my wife to tell me the truth. I had persuaded her times without numbers but she kept denying it. This time around, I decided to do it in a hard way," he said. According to him, he wanted to use knife to threaten his wife but he did not want to make mistake and kill her so he decided the option of using the hot iron he was using to threaten her. In his words: "I used the iron to design her stomach, I warned her to tell me the truth if she was sleeping with my father. It was when she saw that I meant business that she confessed that she slept with my father three times but I knew it was more than that."
He said immediately Mercy confessed to him, more anger came upon him and the voice started mocking him whether that was right. "I used that anger to design her severally with the hot iron," On how he killed his son, he said it was while he was punishing his wife that the son woke up and started crying for food. It was then that I remembered that he may not be my child, and the voice again commanded me to finish him, as he may be abominable child. So, I rushed at him, as I was taking him away, Mercy tries to rush at me, I used the hot iron again on her hands."
He said when he went outside he started thinking of what to do with the child. "But I can't say what really happened but I remembered that I punched the boy on the neck and head for about seven or eight times and he gave up his ghost." Surprisingly, he said he regretted killing the innocent child. "I think it is regrettable because, he was innocent but I just did it out of anger. It was unimaginable that a father would demean himself to be sleeping with his daughter in-law. Mercy confessed it, that my dad was sleeping with her.
He said if he had killed his wife, he would not have regretted it but for his son he regretted it. A defiant Henry said he was ready for whatever consequences may arise out of his action: "But I know there is a prize for everything. I am ready to pay any price for killing my son but, for Mercy, I have satisfied my conscience, I now found out that my dad was sleeping with her. So, let nobody blame me but blame my father for everything."
When Daily Sun confronted the suspect's father, Mr Theodore, he said: "My son may not be normal. He is talking rubbish so as to drag my name to the mud. I am a very responsible man with a wife and other children so, where do I sleep with Mercy in my house. It is abominable to do such a thing but that thought could not have come to the mind of a grand father like me.
"I have tried to give him good education but he failed me. I did not relent as I sent him to learn handwork. I have been bailing him from one police station to the other for criminal offences. Their was a time he was arrested for Okada snatching, I knew how much I spent to get him out." He said Henry's wife was quite unfortunate to have been involved in that marriage. "Everyday, there was always one complaint or the other. There was a time that the woman went to her village, I even begged her not to come back to Lagos but she later came back."
Swearing with the name of God he said raising up his hands "It is only God who is the all seeing and all knowing who will vindicate me. I swear, I was not involved in the abominable act as I am being accused by my son."
When Crimewatch went back to Mercy, she said "don't mind him, his father is too responsible to do that kind of thing. It is pure lie, I did not confess that the man slept with me."
Source:Sunnewspaper