Ondo: Mother of 4-year-old remanded in prison for beating daughter to death

Mrs Elizabeth Akinola was on Tuesday remanded in prison custody for allegedly beating her four years old daughter to death.

The 37 years old mother was remanded in prison after she was arraigned before a Chief Magistrates’ Court sitting in Akure, Ondo State.

Akinola was arranged on a two-count charge bordering on murder and physical assault of her deceased daughter.

The defendant alongside her husband, Felix Akinola, who is currently on the run were alleged to have beaten to death their daughter, Testimony at Iro Street, Akure sometime in August 2019, over alleged deliverance from demonic spirits.

The crime, according to the Police Prosecutor, Sergeant Abdul-Lateef Suleiman, is contrary to and punishable under section 357 of the criminal code Cap 37 Vol. 1, Laws of the Ondo state of Nigeria 2006.

Sergeant Suleiman who filed a seven-paragraph motion of notice prayed before the court that the defendant is remanded in prison custody.

Addressing the court, the defendant’s counsel, Israel Balogun, opposed the application made by the prosecutor, praying the court to give his team more time to file a counter-affidavit as he was served within short notice.

With the plea of the Defense Counsel not granted, the court presided over by Magistrate Victoria Bob-Manuel, consequently ordered the remand of Akinola in prison custody pending the outcome of advice from the office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP).

It would be recalled that the woman and her husband, Felix Akinola, were said to have beaten the girl to death as visible marks of horse whip was all over her body.

The mother had rushed her to the state government’s Specialist Hospital in Akure, where she died.

Following the death, Mrs Akinola had grabbed the corpse and disappeared from the hospital.

She, however, ran out of luck when members of the Nigeria Union of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) Ondo state chapter led by the chairperson, Mrs Doris Olumoko, took up the case and trailed her to her church.

With the cooperation of the Catholic Priest, the woman later confessed that the girl received the bruises from her husband’s church, a Celestial Church during its deliverance session which happens to be the church style.

The case was subsequently adjourned to October 9, 2019.

Meanwhile, the husband is still on the run.