The police in Lagos havearrested a housewife, Grace
Monday, for allegedly torturing
her three-year-old niece,
Miracle Peter, to a coma.
We learnt that Monday
allegedly flogged the victim for
several hours at their home in
the Irepodun, Agege area of
Lagos State and subsequently
slammed her head against a
wall causing the toddler to faint.
The offence of the toddler was
that she always messed up the
room with excreta.
Our correspondent learnt that
Monday had been married for
seven years without a child and
had travelled to Kaduna
sometime in July, 2015, to get
the victim from her elder
brother.
It was learnt that the toddler
was always messing up the
house with excrement and after
verbal correction did not work,
the suspect resorted to beating
her.
On the day the toddler was
beaten to a coma, she was
rushed to a private hospital and
was later referred to a general
hospital in the state for
intensive care.
Monday’s neighbour, Adijat
Fatai, said she had warned her
on several occasions to stop
flogging the victim.
She said, “Miracle (Peter)
always defecated all over the
house. I called Grace and
advised her to be patient with
the little girl because it could be
that God was using the girl to
test her patience.
“Sometime in October, I saw
her cleaning the child up after
she had defecated; she was
beating her as well. I warned
her three different times to stop
flogging her because it was
getting excessive. She didn’t
listen to me and I immediately
suspected she was under a
spell.
“I told her husband to caution
her but he told me Miracle’s
father instructed them to beat
her till she stopped purging. I
left them and went inside my
room. It was the following
morning she came to call me
that the girl had fainted.”
We gathered that the landlord,
Fatai Alimi, reported the matter
at the Isokoko Police Division.
He alleged that Monday had
inflicted several injuries on the
body of the victim, adding that
she slammed Peter’s head
against the wall.
“We rushed her to a private
hospital and I had to borrow
money for her to be admitted
and treated because the
hospital management said we
must deposit some money. She
spent three days at the
hospital. When they could no
longer handle it, they referred
her to a general hospital,” he
added.
Alimi, who said Peter was
placed on oxygen, added that
she was incapacitated by the
torture.
But a friend of the suspect,
Alice Abuye, claimed that
Monday did not slam her
niece’s head against the wall.
Abuye, who claimed to be a
confidante of the suspect, said
she (Monday) had called her to
express her frustration with
Peter’s incessant defecation.
“Grace (Monday) loves little
children. Unfortunately, she had
been married for seven years
without any issue. She said I
should release my child to her
so she could train her till she
got her own but I refused. I told
her to go to her village and get
her relative’s child.
“On the night preceding the
incident, she called me that the
girl had started defecating
again. After beating her,
Miracle (Peter) told her if she
confessed the reason for her
misbehaviour, some spiritual
forces would punish her. Grace
and her husband prayed till
3am after hearing that.
“Around 8am, she woke up and
saw that Miracle was still
sleeping. She woke her up to
give her a bath. She was about
leaving the house when she saw
the girl had hit her head against
the wall. Grace did not touch
her.”
Abuye told us that the victim
had been discharged from the
hospital and released to the
family.
But the Divisional Police Officer,
Isokoko Police Division, Badmos
Dolapo, said she was in tears
after seeing the victim.
“In all my years in the police
force, I have never cried. But
seeing the damage that had
been done to this child, I could
not hold back tears; I wept like
a baby. She had been
brutalised. We will not leave
any stone unturned in this
case,” she said.
[Reported By Samson Folarin,
PUNCH Metro]
No comments:
Post a Comment