A middle-aged woman has been arrested by police from the Gender Unit of the Lagos State Police Command over inhumane treatment she meted out on her 10-year-old son.
The suspect, simply identified as Peace Onyebuchi, was arrested based on the intervention of an NGO, Advocates for Children and Vulnerable Persons Network (ACVPN), led by its coordinator, Mr. Ebenezer Omejalile.
The police said the suspect was fond of hitting the boy’s head against the wall at the slightest provocation.
It was learnt that the boy’s plight was brought to the NGO by some neighbours who felt if they didn’t intervene, the suspect may end up killing him.
Mr. Omejalile stated that the boy’s mother had subjected him to physical and psychological torture.
The Advocates, who were accompanied by policemen from the Gender Unit Ajangbadi Police Station, led by the Divisional Police Officer, CSP Musa Alim, rescued the boy.
Speaking on the rescue, Mr. Omejalile said, “Mrs. Onyebuchi is the biological mother of the boy. The woman is a monster who bites the survivor. She used to hit his head against the wall at the slightest opportunity. The survivor is 10 years old. The survivor is badly wounded and he has a distorted growth for a 10-year-old as he looks like a 6-year-old boy.
“There are several scars all over his body; he couldn’t stand very well, his back is protruded as if he has hunch back. His left ear is completely messed up, his entire head is swollen and his lips and front teeth had been forced out with punches from his own mother.”
Speaking further, Mr. Omejalile said Mrs. Onyebuchi claimed that she had the boy in her first relationship while she was in Gambia but the man rejected the pregnancy.
“She got married and has a 3-year-old boy with her present husband, who is in Gambia. During the arrest and rescue, the entire neighbourhood was in wild jubilation. The suspect said she has not overcome the rejection she suffered in the hands of the survivour’s father and she is taking it out on the boy.”
The team eventually took the boy to Igando General Hospital, where he was treated before he was taken to see a social worker at the Idera Centre.
Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, could not be reached on phone as calls and text messages were neither answered nor replied.
