For allegedly torturing a 12-year-old boy living with her with a hot knife, a 40-year-old housewife, Iswat Taofeek, has been arrested by the Ogun State Police Command.
The housewife, a resident of 36, Isoka Kugba, Abeokuta, was picked on Monday, November 23, 2020 at about 8:30a.m.
Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi had disclosed that Mrs Taofeek was exposed when one of her neighbours brought the boy to Adatan police station with injuries inflicted on him with hot knife and cutlass.
According to Oyeyemi, the boy, who was in agonising pain, fainted while the neighbour was narrating the incident to the police.
He was said to have been rushed to a hospital for an urgent medical attention.
After listening to the report, the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Adatan police station, CSP Samuel Aladegoroye sent detectives to the housewife’s residence to effect her arrest.
“When interrogated, the suspect explained that the young boy is a son to her brother-in-law, and has been living with her for some time.
“She stated further that she kept the sum of N5,000 somewhere in the house but couldn’t find it. She said she believed that it was the boy who stole it, hence her putting a knife on fire until it was hot, before she used it to burn him all over his body,” the PPRO stated.
Narrating the cause of her action to Reporters At Large, Mrs Taofeek, a mother of three, said that the victim was fond of stealing her money.
She said she was infuriated with his stealing the last N5,000, as it was part of N25,000 kept with her for a trader in clothing materials.
“What I aimed at was to teach him a lesson. I didn’t mean to do evil to him,” she told Reporters At Large.
The housewife disclosed that the boy started living with her early part of the year, after leaving a village in Ogunmakin area.
The PPRO said that the state Commissioner of Police, Edward Awolowo Ajogun has ordered the transfer of the case to anti-human trafficking and child labour unit of the State Criminal
Investigation and Intelligence Department for further investigation and prosecution.
