More facts have emerged in the trial of a 36-year-old lawyer, Abasiesebanga Ikoiwak, and five others, over the gruesome murder of her husband, Godwin Ikoiwak, 41.
Until his death in January last year, Ikoiwak, a native of Eket Local Government Area in Akwa Ibom, was a counsel at the state Ministry of Justice.
At the hearing of the matter before an Uyo High Court, 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 lawyer wife, Abasiesebanga, 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.
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Anyanwu, the 7th prosecution witness, also said that his late friend told him that his wife was having sexual relationship with her former boss, a legal practitioner.
He said the deceased husband told him that his wife had stayed with a Catholic priest, Fr. Maurice Mbeke, as a house help 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, he does not set his eyes on her, until after the delivery of the baby, when she will present it to him and say “this is your child”.
The prosecution team led by State Director, 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.
The wife of the deceased, Abasiesebanga, is standing trial alongside her mother, 66-year-old Margaret Patrick Umoh, her brother, Owoidoho Patrick 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.
The court presided over by Justice Bassey Nkanang, adjourned the case to today for continuation of hearing.
Lawyer accused of killing husband brought in 19-year-old son she had with priest as housemaid