Double Tragedy - Man battles police over death of pregnant wife

A recently widowed young man, Solomon Wilfred, whose pregnant wife, Vivienne, allegedly died shortly after her release from police detention, is blaming the police for the death of his wife, stating that his wife died from emotional stress.

According to the tearful Wilfred who got married to Vivienne in December, 2015, his wife who was six-week-old pregnant, was arrested by policemen from the Akinpelu Police Station, Oshodi, Lagos State, on March 15, 2016, following an argument with another woman, Chinwendu Udomadu over a teenage girl, Perpetual Ucheweaku, at the nearby Arena Market inside the Ikeja Military Cantonment.


The deceased who had been having health challenges, according to Wilfred, was detained over night but by the time she was released, she had developed emotional stress, shortly after which she gave up the ghost.

Though the facts of the story is quite complicated, it was gathered that Udomadu and her daughter, Chinemerem, had claimed that the lady known as Perpetual, who was under the care of Vivienne, was actually a girl who had been declared missing since 2014, known as  Osinachi Udomadu.

But the late Vivienne debunked their claim, saying the girl had been under her care since she was eight and that she knew the girl’s parents who handed gave her their blessings to come to Lagos with the girl.

When the case got to the Akinpelu Station, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), was said to have transferred it to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) at Panti, Yaba, claiming that it was a criminal case which could not be handled at his station.

The bereaved Wilfred said it was at Panti that his wife was detained in a cell while he wrote a statement and even begged the police to swap places with her since she was pregnant and suffered stress induced seizures, but was denied the plea.

“I told them she was pregnant and sick. I told them she had stress induced seizures, and I went upstairs to write the statement for me to swap places with her. But when I came back, they had thrown her into the cell.

I even thought they put her behind the counter to wait for me to write the statement, but she was in the cell.

Then I told them to release her because I already told them she was not feeling fine," Wilfred narrated.

But the police have refused to claim culpability in the death of the woman by denying Vivienne was ever kept in custody after her arrest, saying she was released immediately her husband said she was pregnant and had health challenges.

The State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Dolapo Badmos, insisted that the lady was not detained.

“She was never put in the cell and she was released by the ACP SCID immediately her husband said she was six weeks pregnant and has health challenges.

The ACP later called and told me that she has been informed the woman fainted at home and was rushed to the hospital where she passed on.

The police did nothing wrong in the matter. The suspects (Chinwendu and Chinemerem Udomadu) have been charged to court and the result of the DNA test is still being awaited.”