BY IKECHUKWU AGADA
More information about the death of Mrs. Clara Bassey, a woman lawyer who died chasing after her husband and her sidechick has continue to unfold.
It was gathered that Clara’s decision to pursue her husband was motivated by the individual who told her about his presence with the girlfriend according to a family member who spoke with Newsmen on the condition of anonymity.
Clara had long suspected the two love birds but was unaware of the girlfriend’s true identity. He added that his girlfriend and the lawyer’s husband had been dating for a very long period. A close friend of the husband while speaking on the incident said, “Sonnie and I attended St Patrick’s College. He grew up here in Calabar. He was a car dealer before he became a lawyer. We play chess together. He lived at Barracks Road, near Bogobiri before moving to his present home. He and his wife had been having issues over the girl and when information got to the wife that her husband who said he was travelling out of town was actually in town, she was terribly angry and that was the reason for the hot chase.”
Between the Husband, the Deceased and the Lady who made the phone call, who is to be held responsible?
Further investigation revealed that the girlfriend is a single mother and a lawyer who is from the state’s Yakur Local Government Area.
A second account stated that the couple had been dating for a while and that the girlfriend had been helping the husband prepare his legal papers. Last Sunday after his return from a trip, the man immediately visited his girlfriend before returning home.
When Sonnie and his girlfriend were spotted in the Spar supermarket, a bystander called the wife to let her know. The late wife immediately rushed to the venue in her Toyota Highlander and waited for them outside the supermarket at the stadium. When she saw her husband and his girlfriend stormed out and entered his Mercedes Benz, she chased after them in an apparent attempt to catch them pants down at their destination.
In an attempt to speedily follow her husband down the same road, the woman lost control and slammed into one of the roadside ornamental trees as the husband swerved off the highway and into Atekong Drive.
The car was completely destroyed in the collision, and she suffered fatal injuries. It was reported that Sonnie noticed what had happened in his rearview mirror, stopped the vehicle, ordered his girlfriend to get out, and then turned around to try to save his wife. She was saved by other motorists, who assisted in transporting her for medical care to the Nigerian Navy Reference Hospital, which is about a kilometer away and still on the same roadway.
A family source at the hospital said before the wife gave up the ghost, Sonnie was remorseful and with tears in his eyes, he knelt beside his dying wife begging the lifeless body for forgiveness and urging her to come back to life and take care of their three children.
According to the source, “it was at the hospital that the man wailed seriously begging the wife to forgive him, while professing all his love for her, asking her to wake up. The woman who made the call to the deceased wife that her husband was with his girlfriend was actually at the hospital when she was pronounced dead.
But the family members didn’t realise this at the time until they checked the deceased’s phone and discovered that the woman who had been with them all along in the hospital was the one communicated with the deceased.
“All that said, I can tell you that the husband loved the wife and never joked with his family. He is very passionate about them, and did everything that a father and husband should do. The stories and so many versions you have been reading are mostly false.
Just a few days ago, he was said to be in a coma, some said that he was dead, but all were pure falsehood. “It is natural for someone in his shoes to feel sober, withdrawn from people when bereaved but I can also tell you that he might be feeling all that, but he is definitely not in any dangerous situation at the moment.
“The single mum who was his ‘side chick’ has now deactivated her social media accounts for fear of clapbacks.
“The sidechick is the chiefest cause of the accident and the death of the victim” said a heartbroken source.
The lady who tipped off the deceased woman is the real killer according to another devastated source. As a matter of fact, she was also at the hospital when the victim was pronounced dead.
When I realized that she was the one who was responsible for sending the victim to her early death, I felt like beating her, but it was late by that time we realized it.
“The husband might be in a sober mood but there is no serious health issue arising from the incident that I’m aware of. He is a great father, husband and hardworking man, but was just a victim of circumstance.” Another friend of the family who also pleaded anonymity told the media. What happened was just unfortunate because the husband is a gentleman to the core. The source said, “he was indeed hospitalised but we hope he gets better soon, he battled with stroke some time ago, he is just recovering and coupled with what happened again, he is only human, they should stop peddling death rumour and remember his kids in the mix.
The relationship with his late wife started as far back as 2004 or thereabout and it produced three kids. It’s rather sad that this kind of thing happened to him because both of them were inseparable love birds, he was always with her all the time.
“The children are currently being taken care of by a family friend, all we are doing is praying for him to be strong, the deed has already been done, and people should allow the family to mourn in peace. This kind of thing that happened to him could have happened to anybody. “There are cases of divorce that he even refunded money to female clients while preaching peace because he doesn’t believe in separation or divorce, he is just a gentleman. People should consider his children and stop judging him.”
A friend of late Clara, Mrs Ann told Newsmen that the man should be held responsible for the death of his wife because of his action. “The man refused to take his children back to school that day on the pretext that he was travelling out of town for business but the trip was to keep a date with a ‘side chick’. Which woman would hear that and not be infuriated?”
Another lady, Oge Okafor in her reaction blamed the deceased for her action which she described as “thoughtless”. She said, “was it the best thing for her to run after her husband and his girlfriend? No now.
Let us assume she caught up with them and exchanged words or fought them, would that have stopped the man from going out? Omo, there are many ways to kill a rat, abeg”.
