A 40-year-old man, Patrick Markson, has thrown the residents of Odede Street, off Tombia Amassoma road in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, into a mournful mood after he killed his wife with a sledge hammer and thereafter committed suicide.
The incident happened last Thursday morning.
The deceased, Markson, who was identified as a civil servant working with the Yenagoa Local Government Area Council, reportedly hit the wife’s head with a sledged hammer while in her deep sleep, and watched her bleed to death.
He thereafter, drank poisonous substances suspected to be a dangerous insecticide known as Sniper and lay close to the bleeding corpse of his wife and died.
The 35-year-old wife, simply identified as Hannah Markson, was from Okotiama Community in Gbarain Clan, Yenagoa.
The Tide gathered that the deceased couple, who had six children together, had been having marital issues for some weeks now and could not resolve them.
Some family members claimed the dispute bordered on money realised from a contract handed to the husband by some of his wife’s relatives.
The elder sister to the deceased wife, Mrs BoufuruTimipre, described her sister as gentle and had no time for conflicts, “Yesterday, we were frying garri, and the husband called me that he wanted to speak with my sister if we were together, and I told him that when I got to where she was, I would pass the message.
“On reaching her, I told her and immediately we tried reaching him but we couldn’t, later he called again but I had left where she was. So, he told me to tell her to bring garri for home use.
“This morning, the son called me that the mum was seen dead and he wanted me to come. The dad too was dead. So when I got to their house, I went straight to the room, and I saw them both lying on the bed dead, but I noticed a can of snipper by the bed and a big hammer.”
A compound Chief and the head of Aputu family, Chief Anthony Jacob, said he was shocked by the development, saying it is a sad development.
When contacted, the spokesman of the Bayelsa Police Command, Asinim Butswat, who confirmed the development said the corpses of the deceased couple had been evacuated and deposited at the mortuary.