Deann Igho married Sylvester barely a
year ago and hoped to have a good
marriage. Their affair had started when
she was a student at the University of
Port Harcourt. Their love affair
blossomed, and they agreed to get married. Deann’s parents, siblings and
relatives refused to let her marry
Sylvester. Along the line, she got
pregnant for Sylvester and her family
didn’t have any choice but to grant her
wish. She moved in to live with Sylvester. Last year, she gave birth to a
baby boy. Deann is Sylvester’s third
wife. The fight Sylvester returned home after being
away for two weeks. A quarrel had
ensued between him and the wife in
the evening. To Deann, the matter was
settled, but her husband did not want
to let go. At night, Sylvester woke his wife from sleep and demanded that
they talked. His wife told him that
whatever discussion there was had to
wait till the morning, to avoid waking
the baby, who had cough and catarrh.
In a fit of anger, Sylvester stabbed her twice in the eye, locked the door and
escaped.
Since their home on Ada George Road, a
developing part of Port Harcourt, is
isolated, neighbours could not hear
Deann’s cries. Writhing in pains and on the verge of bleeding to death, she
managed to call her siblings in Lagos,
on phone. She also called her parents
and Sylvester’s parents, who also live in
Lagos. Also, in pains, she captured her
bleeding face with her Blackberry phone camera and sent them to those
she called.
Her family contacted their friends in
Port Harcourt, Mr & Mrs. Castro, who
broke the door and took her out. She
was then taken to the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH)
for medical attention.
Nero Igho, Deann’s brother, who was in
Lagos when he got this distress call,
says he called Sylvester several times,
but the latter refused to pick his call. After initial treatment, Nero took his
sister to police area command, where
the matter was reported. She was,
thereafter, transferred to Lagos State
University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja,
where by a team of three doctors confirmed that the eye was dead, after
surgery. On her experience, Deann said:
“Sylvester used a knife to remove one
of my eyes and locked the door against
me so that I will bleed to death.” How Sylvester was arrested After the attack, Sylvester moved over
to Lagos and was lodging in a hotel.
While in Lagos, he told those who
called him on phone that he was in
Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. The bubble
burst when someone sported him and told Deann’s family. Nero traced him to
the hotel and fooled him into believing
that there was no problem, as they saw
the matter as his trying time with his
wife. He followed them home, where
the police picked him up. The police said he would be transferred to Port
Harcourt, where the crime was
committed. Sylvester’s plot to flee Nigeria It was learnt that Sylvester actually
planned to flee Nigeria, which was why
he came to Lagos. He had made
arrangements for an International
passport, which he was waiting for
before he was nabbed. While cooling off at Lagos Police Command cell,
Sylvester blamed Satan for his action.
He denied stabbing his wife. According
to him, the ceiling fan cut his wife’s
face.