Woman, younger brother burn housemaid with hot iron for rejecting garri meal.
The woman, Alhaja Fatima Williams, a resident of Allen Avenue area of
Ikeja, however, claimed that the maid was too lazy and that she was not
working for the money being paid her.
The two suspects have been arrested by the police at Ikeja divisional
police station, after the plight of the girl wss reported to divisional
police officer in charge of the station.
The woman told the police that she got the house maid from an agent,
John, who brings young girls from the Republic of Benin to Nigeria to
serve as househelp.
The woman, in her statement to the police, claimed that “the girl is
too stubborn and always wee on the bed and each time I try to correct
her, she would start abusing me.”
She also added that “on that fateful day, because I asked her to
kneel down as a punishment for refusing to carry out house chores, she
went into the kitchen and attempted to consume a local insecticide that I
kept in the kitchen.
“My younger brother who was ironing his cloth then tried to wrest the
poison from her. It was in the process of trying to collect the
insecticide from her that he flogged her severally with cane. She also
got burnt by the hot iron during the struggle.”
The victim, Kemi Leona, however, denied the claims by her boss,
stating that she was battered with hot iron for “Uncle Waliu then
started flogging me with a wire. Not satisfied, he went inside and
plugged a pressing iron, when it became so hot, Uncle Waliu started
using it on me. I ran out of the house when I could not bear the pains
anymore,” the girl said.
She added that the woman had not paid her since she started working
for her since January, adding that “anytime I ask her, she will say that
she has paid the sum of N10,000 to the man who brought her.”
The state police boss, Fatai Owoseni, speaking on the incident, said the two arrested suspects would soon be charged to court.
He described the case as a “man inhumanity to man” and wondered how
the woman should have allowed the girl to be beaten to that state.
“I would personally see to the end of this case because it is a human
interest case. I have ordered my men to charge them to court,” the
Lagos CP said.
Source: Nigerian Tribune.
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