A 12-year-old girl, Mmesoma Ani, has been admitted at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital,LUTH, after she was allegedly abused by her aunt, Mrs. Ogechi Iruwane for stealing a piece of meat.
The marks of torture on the victim’s back were discovered by a trader who stays on Nurudeen Street, Orile Iganmu, Lagos State, where the incident happened.
The trader reported the case to the Lagos State Office of the Public Defender.
She said: “The little girl returned an empty bottle of soft drink to my shop when I saw her injuries. I observed that she was not walking well. I drew closer to her and that was when I saw that her hands were also swollen.
“She said her aunt flogged her. She showed me her chest and I saw that the skin covering one of her maturing breasts had been pinched off. She removed her clothes and I was alarmed when I saw serious injuries on her back.”
It was learnt that the suspect, a mother of three used her bare hands to inflict injuries on the minor’s back and chest.
Punch reported that Ani was also starved for two days for allegedly stealing a piece of meat.
Officials of the agency reportedly arrested the suspect and handed her over to the police at the Orile Iganmu division.
The trader, who pleaded anonymity, said she wanted to take her back to the aunt to ask why she battered the girl without taking her to a hospital, but her neighbours informed her it was not the first time she would beat her. So she reported the matter to the OPD.
An official at OPD said the residents prevented the suspect from escaping when she went to find out why Ani had not returned home from the errand.
“The girl claimed she was 12 years old, even though she looked younger. She also looked malnourished. There were different scars on her back. The irony is that the suspect has three children and they look well-fed.
“The girl claimed that she is the 11th of 12 children. She said the woman came to take her from her parents in Enugu State in December 2015. She said she was in primary three before she was brought to Lagos, but since her arrival, she had not been going to school. She said the woman accused her of stealing a piece of meat and for about two days, she was not given food to eat,” he said.
The Police Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos, confirming the incident, saying the matter would be charged to court as soon as possible.
The Director of the OPD, Mrs. Salami Olubukola, appealed to residents of the state to be on the lookout for child abuse cases while commending the trader that reported the case.
“The girl is now in our care. We will not relent in our efforts to stem the tide of child abuse in Lagos State,” she said.
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