A 42-year-old man, simply identified as Awelewa, reportedly tried to commit suicide by jumping into a well after attempting to kill his wife in Ondo State.
The incident happened around the Powerline area of Akure, in the Akure South Local Government Area of the state.
According to the Nigerian Tribune, the father of four was said to have tried to slaughter his wife while sleeping but was stopped by his children who woke up in the middle of the night.
Awelewa was said to have inflicted a deep cut on his wife’s neck in the process before his children raised the alarm. They were rescued by the neighbors who rushed the woman to the hospital
A source who spoke to the publication said the man had collected a huge amount of money from his wife, his sister-in-law, and some co-tenants which he was unable to pay back. He explained that the man had quarreled with his wife over her refusal to loan him money, due to his inability to pay back old debts.
He said this infuriated the man who had been out of a job for some months and he decided to kill the woman.
After the incident, the man ran away from home, thinking his wife was dead and for fear of being arrested by police but returned home when he learned the wife had been rescued at the hospital.
“When we saw him, we persuaded him to reconcile with his wife and father-in-law and we sent for his wife. But when he learned that his father-in-law had reported his action at the police station, he jumped into the well and took sympathizers some minutes to rescue him,” the source said.
Narrating her ordeal, the wife, identified as Iya Nife, said her husband tried to kill her in the middle of the night while sleeping.
“He nearly slaughtered me when I refused to give him more money after I asked him to pay his previous debt of over N200,000 he is owing me and our neighbors. I spent four days in the hospital for treatment where I was rescued,”
The husband was, however, taken to an undisclosed hospital, while his father-in-law insisted that he should be arrested and reported the incident at the police station.