The police in Lagos have arrested a
housewife, Grace Monday, for allegedly torturing her three-year-old
niece, Miracle Peter, to a coma. It was learnt that Monday
allegedly flogged the victim for several hours at their home in the
Ireodun, 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.
A punch 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.”
PUNCH Metro 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 PUNCH Metro 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.
PUNCH Metro learnt that the Lagos State Office of the Public Defender had taken custody of the victim.
The Public Relations Officer of the OPD,
Adeoba Adeniji-Adele, who spoke for the Director of the agency, Mrs.
Omotola Rotimi, said the victim could no longer walk. He said the agency was awaiting the doctor’s report on the case.
“We want members of the public to be
prompt in reporting cases of abuse like this. It is mandatory under the
law to report child abuse and failure to do that now attracts
imprisonment of about two years. We all must join hands to end this
menace in our society,” he added.
The Police Public Relations Officer, DSP
Joe Offor, when contacted for comment, promised to call back, but he
had yet to do so as of the time of filing this report.
Source: punchng
