By Abimbola Ogunnaike
The police has arraigned a 36-year-old lawyer, Abasiesebanga Ikoiwak, and five others for allegedly killing her 41-year-old husband, Barrister Godwin Ikoiwak.
According to information gathered, Ikoiwak, who was a native of Eket Local Government Area, had reportedly died a few days after the deceased told his friend and former classmate, Barrister Sunny Anyanwu in a phone conversation that he was having issues with his wife over infidelity.
Narrating how the deceased died before an Uyo High Court, Anyanwu said that the deceased hinted him that he reported the matter to his wife’s family who invited him to a meeting in their family compound in Nung Udoe Itak, Ikono Local Government Area, but did not return home alive.
Anyanwu who is the 7th prosecution witness in the matter, also said that the late Barrister told him that his wife was having sexual relationship with her former boss, a legal practitioner, Barrister C.I. Odoh.
He said the deceased husband told him that his wife had stayed with a Catholic priest, Rev. Father Maurice Mbeke as a house help and the catholic priest impregnated her and they had a child who is now 19 years old named after her maternal grandfather.
According to the prosecution witness, the late Barrister did not know that the boy who has been living with him in his house for years, was his wife’s son, because the wife had told him that the child was her younger brother.
According to him, the deceased told him that each time his wife said she was pregnant, he does not set his eyes on her, until after the delivery of the baby, when she will present it to him and say this is your child.
The prosecution team, led by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Akwa Ibom State, Barrister Joseph Umoren tendered the audio recordings which were played in the open court. Until his death, Barrister Ikoiwak was a state counsel with the Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Justice.