He shot her four times until she could breathe no more. Pierangelo Pellizzar, a 61-year-old Italian man, shot dead his 31-year-old Nigerian wife, Amenze Rita, in Italy.
Italian media reports that Rita’s offense was that she filed for divorce after returning from a trip to Nigeria, a move that angered and embittered her estranged husband.
Pellizzar pulled the trigger on Rita in front of her colleagues in the parking lot of Mf Mushroom, a company where she worked, on the morning of Friday, September 10, 2021, in Noventa Vicentina.
Pellizzar waylaid his wife at around 7:30 am and shot her four times, until she could breathe no more.
Thereafter, the suspect escaped from the crime scene in a grey Cherokee Jeep which was later found abandoned at his brother’s house.
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Italian police launched a manhunt for the suspect, who they said was armed and dangerous. He has since been arrested.
Rita reportedly arrived in Italy in 2017 through Libya and got married to Pellizzar in 2018.
Nigeria’s federal government has reacted to Rita’s murder.
The Nigerian Ambassador to Italy, Mfawa Abam; Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) Abike Dabiri-Erewa, and the Nigerian community in Italy, have asked the Italian authorities to investigate the murder and ensure that justice is served.
The President of the National Union of Nigerian Associations in Italy (NUNAI), Rowland Ndukuba, condemned the killing and thanked the police authorities for the swift arrest of Pellizzar.
