Family crime :Brother stabs elder sibling to death over dirty dishes

Tragedy struck on Majente Street, in Akute, Ogun State, when Ekene, the younger brother of 25-year-old Kenneth Chikwado Agbamone stabbed him to death following an al­tercation about washing dirty plates.

Kenneth and Ekene had a heated argument because the younger one failed to wash dirty plates the family ate with earlier in the evening.

Trouble began when Kenneth returned from a church service that fateful night of July 14, 2015, at 9pm, and promptly observed that his young­er brother, Ekene did not wash the dirty plates stacked in the kitchen.

Incidentally, the church where Kenneth was a member had declared a one-day fasting and prayer programme, which he participated in, and went to church later in the day for the normal congregational prayer to end the fasting.

Before leaving for the church service, he had cooked rice, and served his mother, who was roasting and selling corn in the street, where the family lives. So returning from the church service and seeing that Ekene did not wash the dirty dishes, he got angry and demanded that the younger brother should promptly wash the plates. Ekene allegedly re­fused to do so. This result­ed in a heated argument between them. At some point, Kenneth, it was said, drew his belt and hit Ekene twice and left the house to buy sachet water.

However, doom awaited him at home. Ekene was still seething with rage. He was said to have taken a knife from the kitchen, held it behind his back and hid behind the door, waiting for Kenneth to return. The moment Kenneth walked through the door, Ekene stabbed him on the left side of his chest. Meanwhile, their mother, Cynthia, was taking her bath at the time. As she came into the house from the bathroom, Cynthia found her son on the ground in a pool of his blood. It was her prolonged scream of anguish that rented the air and attracted neighbours, who rushed in to find out what was wrong in the Agbamone home.

Soon word of the death of Kenneth spread fast in the neighbourhood and people trooped into the street to behold Kenneth’s body that was laid in the middle of the street before it was taken to the hospital.

At the hospital, a drama played out as the medical facility refused to handle the case, claiming that it was only a maternity clinic and ill-equipped for the emergency. However, the doctor in-charge briefly examined the victim and noted that he had been stabbed and was brought in lifeless.

Sunday Sun gathered from a neighbour of the Agbamone’s that Ekene was said to have fainted when some men wrestled him to the ground, to prevent him from running away. After he passed out, they left him near the drainage. But when he regained consciousness, he still looked dazed, not knowing where he was or how he got there. When he was told that he stabbed Kenneth in the chest, and that he had been taken to the clinic, he seemed hor­rified and ran to the clinic, where he learnt that his el­der brother had died from the fatal injuries caused by the stabbing.

The source further disclosed that it was the clinic that alerted the nearest police station after confirming that the victim was dead, and requested that a team be dispatched to investigate the matter. But a police officer at the station was said to have retorted that the available patrol van had no fuel in it. This response, Sunday Sun gathered, prompted the doctor to go in person to the station to file a re­port, but he was allegedly beaten by the police. Moreover, a female auxil­iary nurse attached to the clinic was similarly beaten, while one of the male staff was detained at the station overnight. However, all attempts to speak to the doctor in charge of the maternity clinic proved abortive.

A female member of the church where Kenneth be­longed, who happens to be familiar with the family blamed his mother for the unfortunate incident, ar­guing that she had laid the foundation for the tragic incident because of the bad way she raised Ekene, the second son and youngest child, who she claimed was over-pampered.

Her words: “Kenneth was the one that would clean and arrange the house, fetch water, sweep, and do everything even though he had younger siblings, who didn’t do any domestic chores. They would just leave every­thing for him to do. If the mother had cautioned the younger brother, I don’t think this incident would have happened. This is a big lesson for all parents to love all their children equally. The siblings never did anything, even the neighbours would testify to this. I heard the mother crying that she can’t live without Kenneth, who was like a woman at home.”

One of the residents in the area told Sunday Sun that Ekene was allegedly known to smoke Indian hemp and run around with touts in the neigh­bourhood. As at the time of filing this report, the whereabouts of the father of the children, could not be established as he was said not to be living with the family in Ogun State. A neighbour said of him, “He is not around, he doesn’t live here.”

Other neighbours said that Kenneth was a young man who loved preach­ing the word of God to people in the streets. Hours before his death, he was said to have preached to two young men smoking cigarettes and urged them to receive Christ as their saviour.

A friend of his, Lanre, who owns a barbing salon, also revealed that late Kenneth had prayed hard for a job. He disclosed that on the day of his death, Kenneth had gotten two calls from two separate places, where he was invited to take up em­ployment as a barber and hairstylist. According to him, Kenneth knew how to cut hair but was reluctant to work for people because it didn’t bring in enough. He wanted to start up his own business so he could take care of himself.

Lanre further said: “Kenneth believed in God. He had great faith. When he saw girls around me, he always advised them not to go after men, and to dress decently. He was a brilliant man; his spoken English was sound, so I got close to him. He regularly came to my salon to give people haircuts, and any money he made, he would give me to support my shop.”

Kenneth was the first of his mother’s three children. He had a younger sister, Ogechi, and Ekene, the alleged culprit, who is now at large. All efforts made to speak with the bereaved mother of Kenneth were unsuccessful.

The deceased was de­scribed by friends, church members and neighbours as “a loving, gentle and easy going fellow who never wore a frown on his face despite his circumstances.”

The Sun