A seven-year-old boy, identified simply as Promise, has been stabbed by her mother with broken bottles for allegedly defiling his two-year-old step-sister and the daughter of a neighbour.The incident happened on Monday on Tunde Olusola Street, in the Ijaiye-Ojokoro area of Lagos.
The mother, Mrs. Blessing Fred, was said to have gone out with her daughter on Sunday, leaving Promise behind.
It was gathered that while the mother was away, Promise went to visit five-year-old Yemi (pseudonym) ─ the neighbour’s daughter ─ at her parents’ apartment. He was said to have met Yemi alone and took her to his mother’s room.
On getting to the room, he reportedly told her to remove her clothes and lie down. It was said that he slept on top of the girl and fiddled with her private parts.
PUNCH Metro learnt that Yemi’s mother had left her with her sister, who was said to have left home when the incident happened.
Our correspondent gathered that Yemi narrated what transpired between her and Promise to her mother when she came back.
Residents approached by PUNCH Metro on Wednesday declined to speak, but a neighbour, who did not want her name in print because of the sensitivity of the matter, told our correspondent that Yemi’s mother invited Promise to her apartment and verified the story in the presence of her daughter.
She said, “Initially, he denied. But when the woman assured him that she would not tell his mother, he opened up and said it was true. He said he had been doing it with his step-sister too. The woman later reported Promise to his mother and he confessed to her as well.”
“She first beat him with a stick on Monday for the offence. But all of a sudden, she smashed a bottle and stabbed him in the back.”
A resident, Bose Komolafe, said Fred had been arrested by the police from the Ijaiye-Ojokoro Police Division, while Promise had been admitted to a hospital in the area.
She said, “Some neighbours rushed to rescue the child from her. He is on admission at a hospital. Whatever the child might have done wrong, such a move was too harsh.”
Yemi’s mother’s apartment was locked when our correspondent checked for comments on the incident.
Our correspondent inquired about the matter from a police woman at the complaint desk of the police station, but she said she did not have the details.
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Kenneth Nwosu, confirmed the incident.
He said, “Fred stabbed her son on the back for allegedly touching the vagina of his two-year-old sister. She has been apprehended. The victim is currently receiving treatment at a hospital. The neighbour’s daughter case was not reported to us.”
PUNCH
