Pastor’s Wife, 52, Commits Suicide in Ondo

James Sowole in Akure

The wife of a cleric, identified as Mrs. Opeyemi Babatola, was at the weekend reported to have committed suicide by hanging herself at her residence located at Aule area of Akure, the Ondo State capital.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) for the Ondo State Command, Mr. Femi Joseph, said the husband of the deceased, Pastor Adeolu Babatola, who was the first person to see the deceased hanging in their house on Monday had been invited for investigation.
According to a source, Opeyemi had told her husband that she was going to a mountain to pray last Friday but rather than going to the church, she went into one of the rooms in her house to hang herself.

“She told her child and her husband that she wanted to go to a mountain to pray, so since Friday her husband was thinking she was at the prayer mountain praying for the family because that was not her first time of doing so.

“On Monday morning the husband went to the back of one of the rooms in the other apartment of the house and discovered that there were many houseflies by the window side. So he opened the room and found his wife hanged. He had to cry out to the neighbours,” the source said.

The police were later invited to the scene while traditionalists also came to perform some rituals to bring the corpse down.
All efforts to speak with the husband of the deceased was not successful as he was with the police.

The PPRO said investigation had begun over the matter, noting that it could not ascertain if there was any criminal involvement in the incident but insisted that the investigation was still ongoing.