POLICE IN Ekiti State intend to prosecute Ado-Ekiti local woman Bukola Olusegun for setting her husband ablaze on Valentine's Day after he refused to take her out for a treat in line with the customary practise.

In a fit of rage, Ms Olusegun, set her husband Abimbola on fire on the night of February 14 after a row over him not taking her out for dinner.  According to the police, the couple had a disagreement after Bukola allegedly insisted her husband must take her out on Valentine’s Day and he turned the request down.

Unknown to the husband, however, Bukola had kept petrol which she intended to use to do the harm and after he went to sleep, she set him alight. Neighbours discovered his burning body and rushed Mr Olusegun to the hospital.

One neighbour said: “It was around midnight that the husband suddenly ran out from their apartment, raising the alarm that his wife had set him ablaze. He was burning and was battling with the fire his wife had set on him.

"We had to rush out to rescue him by quickly getting water and pouring it on him and but for the prompt intervention of some of us, he would have been burnt to ashes. He was thereafter rushed to the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, where he is being treated."

After raking Mr Olusegun to hospital, the neighbours reported the incident at the Ado Central Divisional Police Station from where policemen promptly came to arrest the wife. Mr Olusegun is lying critically ill in hospital, with doctors battling to save his life. 

One hospital staff attending to him added that the target of Abimbola’s assailant might have been his private part as it was badly burnt. Albert Adeyemi, the Ekiti State Police Public Relations Officer, who confirmed the incident, said Bukola confessed to setting her husband ablaze.