Wife, mother-in-law, Rev. Father, others arraigned over death of Lawyer

By Our Correspondent

The police have arraigned a 36-year-old lawyer, Abasiesebanga Ikoiwak, and five others over the alleged murder of her husband, Godwin Ikoiwak.

The 41-year-old man was a counsel at Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Justice before he was allegedly killed in January 2022.

At the hearing of the matter before an Uyo High Court in Akwa Ibom State, a friend and classmate of the deceased in the Faculty of Law, University of Calabar, Sunny Anyanwu, said he told him in a phone conversation few days before his death that he and his wife were having issues over infidelity.

He said the deceased hinted that he reported the matter to his wife’s family who invited him to a meeting in their compound at Nung Udoe Itak, Ikono Local Government Area.

He said his friend honoured the meeting but did not return home alive.

Anyanwu, the seventh prosecution witness, also said the late Ikoiwak told him that his wife was having sexual relationship with her former boss, a legal practitioner.

He said Ikoiwak told him that his wife lived with a Catholic priest, Fr. Maurice Mbeke, in her teenage years as a housemaid and the priest impregnated her, adding that they had a child who was now 19-year-old named after his maternal grandfather.

According to the prosecution witness, late Ikoiwak 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 said the child was her younger brother.

He said the deceased told him that each time his wife said she was pregnant, she would leave the house until after the delivery of the baby.

The prosecution team led by state director of public prosecution, Joseph Umoren, tendered the audio recordings of the phone conversation between the witness and his late friend as exhibit after they were played in court.

Mrs. Ikoiwak is standing trial alongside her 66-year-old mother, Margaret Umoh; her brother, Owoidoho Umoh; a Catholic priest, Fr. Gabriel Ekong, 51; and a Medical Doctor, Isaac Njoku, over alleged false report on the cause of death of Ikoiwak.