The police in Edo State, South-South Nigeria, have arrested an 84-year-old man, Gabriel Ahuwa, for allegedly killing his 75-year-old wife for denying him sex.

The suspect said his wife had denied him sex for a long time, adding she always found an excuse not to have sex with him.

Ahuwa said he could not afford prostitutes and accused his wife of sleeping with a cleric.

Ahuwa was one of the 198 suspects recently arrested for various crimes ranging from armed robbery to kidnapping and murder by the state police command.

The spokesman for the state police command, SP Chidi Nwabuzor at a press conference on Wednesday, said, “The suspect is not remorseful. After killing his wife, he still claimed that his action was the only solution to her starving him of sex.”

Ahuwa said: “My wife did not listen to me; anytime I asked her to come and sleep with me she always declined. We have seven children together — five boys and two girls.

“I reported her to my family and her family, but she failed to listen to them and continued in her old ways. I heard that she was sleeping with pastors.

“Every time I asked for sex, she would tell me she was sick or she had an ulcer, but I heard that she was sleeping with other men and I don’t have money to patronise prostitutes.

“Last Saturday afternoon, I picked up a cutlass in the house and (cut) her all over her body. I did it in anger because she did not obey me and I wanted people to know of it.”