He told PUNCH Metro that his wife, Ronke provoked him by describing vividly how her lover slept with her in a hotel in Abuja.

Lekan, a depot worker in the Apapa area of Lagos State, said his wife of eight years changed after she allegedly started dating the general manager of a publishing company.

The Abeokuta, Ogun State indigene, said he regretted marrying Ronke, explaining that his late mother had warned him against the union, but he never listened.

The crisis between the two degenerated last Thursday, as Lekan allegedly murdered Ronke, after which he locked up the children, aged 6 and 4 and fled the house.

He said the last time he beat his wife was three years ago after a disagreement, saying he had never touched her afterwards.

His words, “Since I married my wife eight years ago, she has never bought anything into the house. I gave her N5,000 on Saturdays and N3,000 on Tuesdays for soup. I also gave her money to make her hair.

“She was working with GTB as a marketer, but she got sacked three years ago. For that period, I was the one feeding her and taking responsibility for everything in the family. I would wash her pants, bath the children and buy foodstuffs in the house. She later got a job with a publishing company owned by her uncle.

“But my wife changed sometime in March, when she started dating the general manger of a publishing company. My wife was going to the office from Monday to Sunday and she wasn’t going to church again, all because of this man. She called him ‘Eyitemi’ (My own).

“Last week Friday, she went to Abuja and came back on Monday. She never told me that the lover was there with her. I learnt later that the lover was there and they slept together in the same room for four days.

“When she came back, she didn’t know I was inside the house. She started talking with the man on the phone that he really had fun with him and I didn’t know how to make love. She again said her private parts were paining her.”

He said he confronted his late wife and she confirmed that she was dating the other man.

Recounting the incident of that night which led to her death, he said they had an argument over money.

He said, “It was around 9pm on Thursday. We had paid our nanny N20,000. Then we needed to pay our children’s teachers N30,000. I discovered she had taken N20,000 and when I asked her to return my money, she said she had spent it.

“I was angry because for the past three months, she didn’t allow me to have sex with her. I pushed her hand away from me on the staircase and I left her. She never tumbled or fell. In fact that night, I bought the food that we both ate because she said she didn’t want to cook.

“I didn’t know anything had happened to her until Friday when I saw her on the staircase. I thought she was still pretending. I just left her and walked away.”

Asked why he shut the gate against his children, he said he never did, adding that it was his son that closed that gate.

Lekan also denied taking the victim’s phone away, saying he left it on the bed.

He said he had no reason to kill his wife, adding that he bought her two cars and always provided for her needs.

He said, “Jide, her family’s second child lived with me for three to four years. Their eldest daughter, Bolatito, has lived with me too.

“Although I am not a saint, I don’t drink, I don’t smoke. I am a responsible man. The problem with my wife was that she was temperamental. She shouted at me whenever she talked.

“I am a Lagos boy and I can be in this Lagos for the next 30 years and nobody would see me.”