A 37-year-old woman, Elizabeth Akinola, who allegedly beat her four-year-old daughter, Testimony, to death, was yesterday remanded in prison custody.
The police had arraigned Akinola yesterday before a Chief Magistrate’s Court sitting in Akure.
The accused person was arraigned on a two-count charge of physical assault and murder of her daughter.
The defendant and her husband, Felix Akinola, who is on the run, were alleged to have fatally whipped Testimony at Iro Street, Akure, on Wednesday August 21, 2019, following a claim from their church pastor that she possessed demonic spirits and needed to be delivered.
The crime, according to police prosecutor, Sergeant Abdul-Lateef Sulaiman, was contrary to and punishable under Section 357 of the Criminal Code, Cap 37 Vol.1, Laws of the Ondo State of Nigeria 2006.
Sgt Suleiman, who filed a seven-paragraph motion of notice on the case, prayed the court to remand Akinola in prison custody.
But the defendant’s counsel, Israel Balogun, opposed the prosecutor’s application and instead asked the court to give his team more time to file a counter-affidavit as he was served the notice not long ago.
Magistrate Victoria Bob-Manuel rejected Balogun’s prayer and ordered the remand of Akinola in prison custody pending the outcome of advice from the office of the Ondo State Director of Public Prosecution.
Bob-Manuel then adjourned the case to October 9, 2019.
It would be recalled that Testimony’s mother had rushed her to the Specialist Hospital in Akure on the night of August 21 after she and Felix Akinola had allegedly beaten her extensively, with visible marks of horse whip all over the girl’s body.
Immediately the doctor on duty at the hospital declared Testimony dead on examination, Mrs Akinola grabbed the corpse and fled from the hospital.
She, however, ran out of luck when members of the Nigeria Union of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) Ondo State chapter, led by its chairperson, Mrs Doris Olumoko, took up the case and trailed her to her church.
The woman later confessed, but the husband is still on the run.
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