With friends and family still in shock over the brutal stabbing of 19-year-old Chidebere Confidence Nwanma, by her 24-year-old boyfriend, Saliu Ladayo, her parents are insisting he must marry her corpse.
One year after they met and fell in love, the tragic end of the affair – a stabbing to death over suspicion of cheating – has left more than a sour taste for many.
Ladayo was arrested by the police and paraded alongside other criminal suspects where he confessed to the gruesome murder.
“She came back on May 15 and I asked her to forgive me, and as we were talking I said she should cancel the curse but she said she wouldn’t, so I seized her phone and we dragged it. I was begging her to cancel the curse and she went out to tell one of our neighbours that I seized her phone, and the woman came to ask me. I told the woman what she did and she call a second neighbor, but before she (neighbour) came back, I didn’t know what came over me, I went to take a knife and stabbed her to death.”
Chidebere’s mother, Chioma, described her late daughter as a promising young girl who was about to be admitted into the Imo State University to study Engineering.
I really don’t know what must have come upon (Ladayo) to do such a thing,” she said.
“If you see how neat he is, you would never believe such a person can hurt a fly, let alone kill someone. Anyway, he must perform the traditional rites for her before she is buried. He will marry her just as someone is marrying a living person. He must marry her corpse and take her to our village to pay her bride price. I have never seen him around my house before.”
The family has met and decided that the accused now in Olokuta Prison in Akure must marry the corpse properly, saying if he refuses, nobody in his family would live above the age of her death. The father of the girl also said she may not be buried this year at all because the man must take her to the village to perform all the traditional rites before her body would be put to rest.
The marriage ceremony according to them is going to be like a normal ceremony where wedding gowns will be put on the corpse and the man will put a wedding ring on her.
“Otherwise, none of the family members of the man would live more than my daughter’s age, never.”