WINDHOEK – After allegedly striking his girlfriend with an iron rod on the head and neck, a 31-year-old man left her for dead at a resting place along the Otjiwarongo and Outjo road.
According to the victim’s mother, Eveline Augumes, who travelled from Otjiwarongo to be near her daughter who is now admitted at Katutura State Hospital in Windhoek, the suspect called the victim’s family early last Wednesday morning to inform them of what he had done and that they should go and get the victim from along the road to Outjo.
Augumes said the suspect, Johannes Gabriel, called her husband’s cellphone at around 04h30 and requested to speak to the victim’s younger brother and informed him that they had an argument, during which he hit her with an iron bar and left her for dead.
The mother said they initially did not believe Gabriel’s story. But he called again after an hour asking the family if they sent someone to pick up his girlfriend’s body.
The mother said Gabriel, who also called the police and pretended he was a passerby who spotted the victim, probably thought he had killed her.
In the meantime, motorists spotted 26-year-old Rihanna Augumes, the victim, and informed the police. She was semi-conscious, the medical personnel at Outjo State Hospital said. After dressing her wounds, the doctors put her on oxygen and rushed her to the Katutura State Hospital in Windhoek.
According to Augumes, the couple was returning from the north where they had travelled a week earlier. The couple lived in Otjiwarongo where they shared a flat.
Rihanna is six months pregnant and her mother said the doctor told her the unborn baby was fine. However, Rihanna cannot move or feed herself. The hospital will run more tests today to determine what appropriate care she must receive.
“She has about 14 or 15 wounds around her face, head and neck,” the mother shared.
Augumes said her daughter informed her that while driving back from the north, Gabriel stopped on the side of the road and decided he was not going to travel further.
She said Rihanna did not want to sleep on the road, as they had already overnighted in Tsumeb. She told him she was asthmatic and did not want to sleep in the car.
“She asked Gabriel to call us but he refused to give her the phone. She took her bag and stood by the road side and he followed her with an iron rod and assaulted her,” the distraught mother said.
She said Gabriel was jealous and had relocated to Otjiwarongo after Rihanna initially broke up with him last year. The mother also claimed this was not the first time Gabriel had assaulted her daughter and had previously threatened to shoot her and himself.
Gabriel would sometimes confiscate his girlfriend’s cellphone and take it with him to work, Augumes alleged.
“When at home and if someone calls, he will answer her phone and if the person spoke in Damara, she needed to translate the conversation after the phone call,” stated the mother.
The Namibian Police Force Investigation Coordinator, Deputy Commissioner Naukalemo Andreas confirmed the incident and said Gabriel was arrested the same day and has appeared in court where he was denied bail.