Man kills colleague, stabs two others for insulting girlfriend

A 25-year-old casual worker, Raphael Nwoye, on Tuesday allegedly went on the rampage in the Ajao Estate area of Lagos State, stabbing a 33-year-old colleague, Ifeanyi Onuoha, to death for insulting his lover, and injuring two others who tried to make peace.

33-year-old Onuoha was stabbed in the neck and in the back after the suspect claimed that Onuoha had been rude to his lover, identified only as Ngozi, on several occasions.

Nwoye, who was one of the casual workers who usually offloaded containers, had had an altercation with Onuoha a few weeks back over Ngozi and had warned the deceased to desist from insulting his lover. Nwoye also, was said to have stabbed the two peacemakers, prompting a resident to quickly alert the Ajao Estate Police Division to the bloody fight on the street.

A security man, Chukwu Ebuka, however, told our correspondent that Onuoha and Nwoye were friends and labourers in the area, until they became rivals over a girl.

Ebuka added that there was a third friend, Tony, who had tried to help the duo settle their differences.

He said,

 “The girl in question is afraid. She has left this area since yesterday. Apart from Ifeanyi (Onuoha) and Raphael (Nwoye), there is a third labourer – Tony. Sometime in January, Nwoye had raised the issue that Ifeanyi was misbehaving with his girlfriend because he insulted her, but they settled the quarrel.

“Yesterday, Tony had called Ifeanyi to come to the area as there were containers to be offloaded. When Ifeanyi arrived, there was a fresh argument over the girlfriend, and Raphael became angry and brought out a knife.

“After killing his friend, Raphael was about escaping when people stopped him that he must not escape. During that process, Raphael stabbed two more persons. They were also bleeding but fortunately, we rushed them to a hospital, and they are still alive.

“We do not know Raphael’s family. He is one of those men who do menial jobs on the street. He had been moving about with the knife in his bag for days before the incident.”

A factory worker, who declined to give her name, said she saw Onuoha writhing in pains as she came to work on Tuesday.

She said,

 “I heard the man shouting, ‘He has killed me o, help help’ as I was coming to work. Blood was all over the place. Both of them do not stay on this street. They only come to work if there are containers they can offload.

“People were shocked that the fight over a girl degenerated into killing.”

Raphael Nwoye have been arrested..