The Abia police command has arrested one Mrs Rose Uwaga for allegedly strangling her 83-year-old husband, Alhaji Isa Uwaga, in Umuahia, the state capital.

Police spokesman Geoffrey Ogbonnaya confirmed the arrest of the woman, who was said to be in her early 70s, to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Umuahia on Wednesday.

Ogbonnaya said that one of Uwaga’s children, Ibeabuchi, reported the matter to the police on July 2.

He said that the case had been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department for proper investigation.

He also said that the remains of the deceased had been deposited at the morgue “for possible autopsy in order to ascertain what actually killed the man”.

NAN also learnt that the aged couple had a disagreement, which degenerated into fisticuffs at their residence at Ohobo-Afara Umuahia.

“During the fight, the man allegedly grabbed a machete to scare off the wife but the woman reportedly overpowered him.

“The machete fell off his hand and the woman, who is huge, pinned him down by the neck and strangled him to death,” a resident of the area said on condition of anonymity.

Another account had it that the deceased might have slumped and died “out of exhaustion after the quarrel with his wife”.

“It is not possible that a woman of about 73 years can muster the strength to stangulate a man,” a friend to the family said.

NAN further learnt that the relations of the deceased rallied round to bury him shortly after his death, according to Islamic rite,before Ibeabuchi reportedly alerted the police.

The suspect, who was said to have immediately gone into hiding, was later arrested and detained by the police.

According to a police source, Ibeabuchi stated in his report that his parents were quarrelling at the time he left the house.

“He further stated that by the time he returned, he saw the lifeless body of his father in a sitting position in their house,” the source further said.