The Nigerian lawyer, who stabbed her husband to death at about 6 a.m. on Tuesday as he slept in the southwestern city of Ibadan in Oyo State, has pleaded not guilty to a one-count murder charge preferred against her, a dramatic turn of event for what many have described as a passion murder that has shocked an entire nation and left friends of the alleged killer in total disbelief.

Mrs. Yewande Oyediran pleaded not guilty after she was arraigned before an Ibadan Chief Magistrate Court in Iyaganku on Friday, three days after the incomprehensible murder took place in her matrimonial home.

The prosecuting police officer, Inspector Amos Adewale, preferred one-count charge of murder against the suspect.

The charge against Yewande was simple but grave: On February 2, 2016, at about 06:10am at No 30 Abidi Odan Akobo area, Ibadan in the Ibadan Magisterial District, the charge said, she did unlawfully cause the death of one Oyelowo Oyediran Ajanaku, 38, by stabbing him with a knife on the neck, which later resulted in his death.

Adewale said that the accused person had committed an offence contrary to Section 316 and punishable under Section 319 of the Criminal Code Cap 38 Vol. II Laws of Oyo State of Nigeria 2000.

According to local newspaper, thenewsnigeria.com.ng, the presiding Chief Magistrate, Mrs. Kehinde Durosaro-Tijani, adjourned the case to 16 February 2016 for mention and ordered the accused to be remanded in Agodi Prisons.

The defence counsel, the newspaper said, Mr. Seun Abimbola, had asked the court to allow the suspect be remanded in police custody so as to be able “to reduce the traumatisation she has been going through as a result of the incident”. The request was turned down.

“However, the journalists who have been well positioned at the Black Maria to be used in conveying the suspect to Agodi Prison to take her picture were disappointed as the suspect was smuggled out of the court in a blue Primera Nissan Car purportedly owned by a lawyer,” thenewsnigeria.com.ng reported.

The lawyer committed the horrendous crime after she learnt that her Europe-based sweetheart had fathered a child with a white woman in Europe, a newspaper said, quoting family sources, as details of the bizarre crime continue to unfold and those who have known the suspected killer for years continue to express shock and disbelief, with many saying they were still dreaming and would soon wake up to a new reality.

Local newspaper, The Punch, quoted family sources as saying that the murdered husband who was into property development, had been living in Europe since he got married to his lawyer wife, but had been coming to Nigeria on a regular basis. He visited home again in December 2015 for a job and was still in the country last Tuesday when tragedy stuck in the ancient city of Ibadan.

It was, sources said, when he was in the country that he or someone else informed his wife that he had fathered a child in Europe with a white woman and had wanted to bring him home. Angered, the unbelievable happened. A squabble, a knife, several stabbings. A passion crime.

Many who had known the suspected killed for years told Simonateba.com that she lived a good, if not pious life before the incomprehensible tragedy took place.

Many of her friends described the killing or even the stabbing as an incomprehensible act from someone who lived a blameless life and could never hurt anyone, much less use a knife on a human being.

The incident at Akobo Estate, Ibadan, Oyo State, involved Barrister Yewande Oyediran (nee Fatoki) and her 38-year old husband, Lowo Oyediran Ajanaku.

Peace Ella Maxwell, who described herself as a friend of the deceased, said on Facebook that Yewande, a lawyer and a Staff of the Directorate of Public Prosecution at the Ministry of Justice in Ibadan first stabbed her husband on Monday after she was told by someone that he had a child outside wedlock.

With an injury on his shoulder, he went to the hospital for medical attention. But on Tuesday, after the squabble had been settled and while he was asleep, she stabbed him again in the neck, killing him almost instantly.

Peace called on Nigerians to seek justice for the dead and punishment for the killer.

She said: “Yewande fatoki stabed her husband. On monday night all becos she heard he had a son outside wedlock.

“This generated a heated arguement between the couple which she stabbed him on the shoulder in the night he went to the hospital to recieved treatment.

“Early hours on tuesday she slaughtered him while he was sleeping.Friends and family and fans please News reaching us now from ibadan is that the Family of hounrable fatoki is presently using all their influence in trying to cover the story of our murdered friend.

“And presently the story has changed the girl yewande is saying she is innocent. A lawyer who works with the ministry of justice.A defence attroney. Who is skilled at such cases. Pls pls pls keep rebroadcasting and sharing until. This can not be covered. We must get justice even if they have the judicary in their pockets. I cry out Hear my cry”

But those who have known Yewande in Ibadan for years told Simonateba.com that she is not the devil she is being portrayed in the media.

They described her as a very conservative, humble and loving person who grew up as a normal girl in the ancient city, going to the university to study law, graduating with good grades, securing a job with the state government and maintaining it with hard work.

As the first born of a family of four, two brothers and a sister, Yewande had struck many people who have come across her as a very humble and nice person, friends said.

Suspected killer brought to the crime scene on Friday
Friends said she was never in a hurry to find love and her younger sister even got married before her. But when she met Lowo Oyediran, a humble and good guy as well, it was almost love at first sight. They dated and got married and have lived a very good life as a couple.

Her father, a retired permanent secretary in Oyo State and Venerable in the Anglican Church is also described as a very humble man who raised good kids.

With all of that, friends said, they were shocked and were eager to hear from her when she recovers from the shock. Sources said Yewande has remained incoherent since the incident took place, and has been asking about her husband.

“She’s asking if he’s ok, where she is and what is happening to and around her,” a source from Ibadan told simonateba.com.

While domestic violence is not new in Africa’s most populous country, the killing of the husband by the wife opens a new set of debates in a country where women are often beaten to death by their husbands or male lovers and where the debates often focus on how to protect women from dangerous men.