Family raises alarm over death of man, 2 months after marriage

 

The family of 46-year-old Dennis Owegbey Idemudia, who worked as a beach master at Liverpool Jetty, a subsidiary of Maritime Apapa, Lagos, has raised alarm over the death of the deceased, whose corpse was found floating on the seashore of Badagry waterside.

The father of two, and a native of Edo State, was last seen alive on Friday, December 31, 2021, after he closed from work at Liverpool Jetty and boarded a boat from Liverpool/Apapa terminal to Aradagu terminal.

Regrettably, he never returned home, as the unexpected happened while he was in transit between Apapa terminal and Iyana Iba jetty.

However, two days after the incident, the company where Dennis worked claimed he was involved in a boat accident while his remains were found floating on the seashore of Badagry waterside.

Dennis had two children from his first wife who died during childbirth was said to have remarried two months ago before the unfortunate incident.

According to Vanguard, a friend of the deceased, David Arome, said; “the last time we heard from Dennis alive was when he spoke to his wife on board a boat coming back from work”.

Arome continued: “The wife raised the alarm and called me at about 10:00 pm when her husband didn’t come back. “That night, all efforts to reach him through his phone proved abortive as his lines were switched off.

“We didn’t see him the next day (Saturday). It was on the third day that, unfortunately, we found his corpse at the Badagry water bank.

“When we asked the company where he worked, they said the boat he boarded had a collision with another boat.

“There was no police report about the incident.

“There were about 18 passengers in the boat. The entire issue is suspicious when we saw Dennis’ corpse on the 2nd of January 2022.

“There were heavy cuts on his mouth and forehead. The marks on his body showed he was beaten and strangled to death and then thrown into the sea to look like a boat accident.

“We are suspecting that his co-workers know something about what happened to him.”

Speaking with Vanguard, the young wife of the deceased, Mercy Idemudia, said; “On the day the incident happened, at about 8:00 pm, I called my husband on phone. He said he was inside the boat returning home. “And from the background, I could hear the sound of sea waves while we spoke. “After we spoke, I dropped the call and dozed off. When I woke up, I discovered that he wasn’t back yet, it was past 10:00 pm.

“Immediately, I started calling him but his two lines were switched off.”

Obviously alarmed by her inability to reach her husband who would normally come back from work around 9:00 pm, Mercy explained: “I dialled his number over 20 times but it wasn’t connecting.

“I began to panic and I raised the alarm. I reached out to some of my neighbours. I told them that my husband hadn’t returned from work and his number was unavailable.

“That morning after my husband left for work, I took a short nap, I had a nightmare.

“In that dream, I saw blood everywhere, I saw two men coming out from a building, and they were laughing at me. “When I woke up, I was afraid but I prayed I said when my husband comes back from work today I will tell him.

“All through that Friday, I could not eat, I lost appetite. I didn’t know that something terrible was about to happen to me.

“The next morning, Saturday, I went to the jetty at Iyana-Iba waterside. I asked the people working there if there was any boat accident last night, they said no.

“I explained to them that I was searching for my husband and that he left for work on Friday and hadn’t returned. They said there was no accident, and if there was any, they will be aware.

“At that time I couldn’t reach any of his colleagues because the incident happened exactly two months after we got married.

“So, it was my husband’s elder brother that called his place of work at Apapa. “That was when they said that my husband was involved in a boat accident on Friday night.

“They said they rushed some victims to the hospital, but they didn’t find my husband.

“I was worried sick by the entire incident.

“On Sunday, I received news that they found his corpse floating on the seashore of Badagry waterside.

“Looking at my husband’s corpse, it was obvious it wasn’t a boat accident. All his teeth were removed; everyone who saw his corpse said it was beyond a boat accident.

“Unfortunately, my husband’s elder brother said he didn’t have the resources to pursue the case or pay for an autopsy to be conducted.”