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Remember the Benin gospel singer who died in an hotel after a meeting with a pastor? Well the husband now says the pastor killed his wife and wants him arrested.
The husband,Mr. Odion Omoarebokhae, has accused the senior pastor of a Pentecostal church, identified as Apostle Psalm Okpe, of allegedly killing his wife, Yvonne Omoarebokhae. Mr. Odion, a businessman who dismissed speculation that his wife died of cardiac arrest, insisted that her drink could have been laced with an overdose of a 'drug' in the hotel room leading to her death. The married lady with a three-year-old child had on April 8, 2016, been reportedly found dead in a private hotel located in GRA, Benin city, a day after performing at a church programme in Warri. The 30-year-old lady was said to have been invited by the Lagos based pastor, whom she had reportedly met on Facebook, to perform at a church programme in Warri, Asaba and Benin.
She was said to have been confirmed dead at the Central Hospital, Benin, while her corpse was deposited in a mortuary. Efforts to reach Pastor Okpe for comments were unsuccessful as he was said to be in police custody. But the husband of the deceased, who told Punch that he did not know the pastor, said, “At about 9pm, I was called to come to the Airport road police station. Initially, I thought she had an issue with the taxi she took on her way back. “But later that night, the police, after tossing me here and there, told me that she was dead. It was later that I discovered that the pastor that invited her to the programme, Psalm Okpe, had killed my wife.” Mr Odion also said the CCTV footage obtained from the hotel revealed that both his wife and the Pastor lodged in the same room and showed the suspicious movements of the pastor, which according to him indicated his complicity in the death of his wife.
The husband said, “I have watched the CCTV footage. Initially, the pastor said that they came back together and she went her way and he went his own way. But we have been to that place (hotel) and watched the CCTV footage and discovered that, contrary to what he (Pastor Okpe) wrote, she (his late wife) actually slept there. “Immediately they entered, she was just following like a dumb (and) went up upstairs. The police told me that they met my wife dressed like somebody ready to go out. The police snapped her (took her photograph) like somebody taking a nap. “I have seen my wife’s body; there is no mark on her. From what I observed, I think she was given an overdose of a substance I do not know. Probably, her system could not take it. “She communicated with me that day she died, at about 10am, that they have finished performing; she could not return the day before; that she is already in Benin (and) in the next one hour, she will be in the house.”
The husband of the lady, who claimed to have received calls from some persons to withdraw the matter, urged the Police to conduct a thorough investigation in the interest of justice for the aggrieved family. “One or two person have been calling me that I should try and bury my wife that they will talk to them for settlement. I have told them (that) I didn’t sell her and I am not collecting any money from anybody. “I want the police to follow this case because I know that pastor Psalm Okpe killed my wife. So, I want the law to make sure he does not go unpunished,” the husband insisted.