Witnesses told the police that they saw the man with a gallon of petrol going into the woman’s house and they assumed that he wanted to use it for the generator.
PRETORIA, November 16 (ANA) – A Nigerian in his mid forties set himself and his lover on fire after she refused his proposal, Benue State police said on Monday.
According to police, the man went to his girlfriend’s house with a gallon of petrol, which he used to set the apartment on fire.
Witnesses told the police that they saw the man with a gallon of petrol going into the woman’s house and they assumed that he wanted to use it for the generator.
According to a local publication, Punch Nigeria, the man in his 40s was married with children but had been going out with the young woman for some time.
“He was married with children. But he proposed to the young lady, whom he claimed to have invested in.
“But the lady, having sought advice from her friends, told him that he was too old for her and that she preferred to marry a younger man and not a man already with wife and children.
“It was the man who rented this apartment for her and furnished it to taste,” a neighbour was quoted saying.
Witnesses told police that after the man was alone in the house with the woman, they were heard arguing and not long after that, they saw smoke coming from the house.
Police said neighbours tried to put out the fire but were not successful.
“By the time firefighters arrived at the scene, the two lovers were reported to have died in the inferno,” the statement said.
Police said an investigation was under way.
– African News Agency (ANA); Edited by Naomi Mackay
