Nursing mother stabbed to death over unpaid rent by landlord’s son

BY ADETOKUNBO ABIOLA

A nursing mother, Deborah Adeleye, died when her landlord’s son, 27-year-old Quozeem Awe, allegedly stabbed her to death over unpaid house rent.

The shocking incident reportedly occurred at five in the morning last Thursday at the Ore Alaba area in Ore, headquarters of Odigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State, with terrified residents fleeing their homes.

Awe also injured Deborah’s husband, Mathew Adeleye, as well as their daughter during the attack, allegedly triggered by an argument over unpaid house rent between the landlord’s son and Matthew, who is one of the tenants in the building owned by the suspect’s father.

Narrating his ordeal from the hospital bed to newsmen, Mathew said he and other tenants had earlier been issued a quit notice, despite the fact that their rent was not yet due.

“I had informed friends to help us find another place, and we finally secured one. We were preparing to move out that same Thursday the incident happened,” Matthew said.

At about five in the morning of the day, he wanted to quit, when Matthew was in the toilet outside the room, Quozeem allegedly came knocking on the door, armed with a knife and cutlass.

“Moments later, he reportedly rushed into the room where my wife, Deborah, a nursing mother, was lying on the bed.

“Immediately he entered, he jumped on my wife. She screamed that she had been stabbed. She died on the spot,” Matthew said.

He rushed out of the toilet upon hearing the commotion and confronted Quozeem at the entrance to his room.

“In the ensuing struggle, I attempted to wrestle the knife from him but slipped to the ground. He overpowered me and stabbed me multiple times in the back, hand and leg,” Matthew recounted.

Matthew’s first child, Tunrayo Adeleye, was also attacked, stabbed as she tried to escape, while residents who responded to the distress call rushed the victims to a nearby hospital.

Quozeem was said to have voluntarily surrendered himself at a nearby police station following the incident.

A police source confirmed that the corpse of the deceased had been deposited at a morgue in Ore, while investigation into the matter was ongoing.