Mr Ikechukwu is being held at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, Yaba, for allegedly slashing the throat of a middle aged Spanish man, Gafaru Anthony, who was in the country on the invitation of Mr Ikechukwu. Both men have been lovers for more than two years before the incident occurred on April 16. The relationship turned sour that day when the lovers had a fight at the Goti Gate Hotel at FESTAC town where they had planned to lodge for one week.
A quarrel reportedly ensued between the lovers after they retired to their room. Mr Ikechukwu allegedly overpowered Mr Anthony during the fight and slashed his throat with a broken bottle. Police officers from the Homicide Department at Panti, Yaba, were invited to the scene, and they arrested Mr Ikechukwu. The body of Mr Anthony was taken to the mortuary for autopsy.
Mr Ikechukwu, however, said he will kill Mr Anthony again if he resurrects. He said the Spaniard had exposed him to HIV, drugged, and raped him. "I met Gafaru in Ghana and we have been friends for more than two years," he said. "He came to Nigeria on the day of the presidential election. He said he wanted to come and carry out a research but it was a lie. We went out and visited places. He told me that his lover in Spain had contracted HIV and he is scared. I told him to go and do the HIV screening to be sure and he said he will do it when he gets back to Spain.
But on that night, while I was sleeping on the same bed with him, I did not know that he had drugged me. And after drugging me, he forced himself on me and slept with me. When I woke up in the morning and discovered what he had done to me, I became angry and confronted him, but he was taking the issue with levity. That was how we started quarrelling, he was the one who took a bottle and broke it on the wall. He wanted to stab me with it but I dodged him and broke my own bottle and stabbed him in the neck, so that was how he bled to death. I did not intend to kill him. I did it in self defence and I don't regret my action, because he would have killed me if he had the chance."
The police spokesman, Samuel Jinadu, advised residents to seek peaceful dispute resolution methods instead of resolving to violence and killing. "The case is being investigated by detectives from the Homicide Department at Panti, Yaba," he said. "The suspect will be charged to court as soon as we are through with our investigation."
Efforts to get the reaction of the Spanish Consulate in Lagos were not successful as phone calls and emails were not replied as at press time.
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