Five-Month Marriage Ends in Tragedy: Army Lieutenant Set Ablaze, Killed by Wife Over Infidelity Claims in Akwa Ibom
Five-Month Marriage Ends in Tragedy: Army Lieutenant Set Ablaze, Killed by Wife Over Infidelity Claims in Akwa Ibom.
A cloud of grief and disbelief has descended upon the Wellington Bassey Barracks in Ibagwa, following a horrific incident that cut short the life of a promising young army officer. The community is reeling after Lieutenant Dr. Samson Haruna, a recently commissioned medical doctor, died from severe burns allegedly inflicted by his wife of just five months.
The shocking event, which unfolded on September 22, 2025, has sparked widespread outrage and an intense conversation about domestic violence.
According to sources close to the family, the tragedy was triggered by a heated argument over the wife’s suspicions of her husband’s infidelity. Mrs. Samson Haruna, a qualified nurse, is alleged to have escalated the confrontation to an unthinkable extreme. In a fit of rage, she reportedly doused the Lieutenant with petrol while he was asleep and set him on fire.
A family member, who wished to remain anonymous, shared harrowing details. “He consistently denied having an affair, but she was consumed by jealousy,” the source revealed. “She carried out this dastardly act when he was most vulnerable.
The victim, Lieutenant Dr. Samson Haruna, was a man whose future shone brightly. Hailing from Jos in Plateau State, he had chosen a path of dual service—healing as a doctor and protecting as a soldier. After graduating in medicine, he was commissioned into the Nigerian Army in 2024, a significant achievement that filled his community with pride.
In April 2025, that pride multiplied as he married his wife in a ceremony that was reportedly “the talk of the town” in their native Dawo community, Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State. Friends and family saw it as the beginning of a perfect union.
Instead, it ended in a medical emergency. After the attack, Lieutenant Haruna was rushed to the military clinic within the barracks. Given the critical nature of his injuries, he was quickly transferred to the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital. Despite the best efforts of medical personnel, he succumbed to his injuries, a life of promise extinguished far too soon.
The suspect, Mrs. Samson Haruna, is now in police custody. Authorities have confirmed her arrest, and she is awaiting arraignment for her alleged role in her husband’s death. Online, the reaction has been swift and severe, with many members of the public calling for the maximum punishment under the law.
The case presents a devastating narrative of how trust and love can curdle into violence, leaving a family and a military institution to mourn a life lost not in the field of duty, but in the confines of his own home.
The Nigerian Army and the nation are left to grapple with a single, painful question: how did a marriage that began with so much hope end in such an unspeakable tragedy?
Five-Month Marriage Ends in Tragedy: Army Lieutenant Set Ablaze, Killed by Wife Over Infidelity Claims in Akwa Ibom