The Sokoto State Police Command has arrested the wife of a retired customs officer for allegedly torturing her 17-year-old stepdaughter.
The woman (name witheld) was said to have been using a pestle to beat the girl as a result of which she sustained fractures on her left hand.
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The girl, Hafsat has been under the care of her stepmother since her father divorced her mother 16 years ago.
Hafsat was accused by her stepmother and her father of not observing daily prayers, theft, and not taking bath.
One of the medical doctors that treated Hafsat at Nana Khadija Centre, Sokoto told Daily Trust that there was no part of her body that was not battered.
“We learned that the stepmother was beating her with a pestle. We are still making investigation to find out the extent of the damage done to her. I learned that the result of the X-ray is out and it was said that she suffered three fractures on her left hand,” the doctor said.
When contacted, the father of Hafsat, a retired Comptroller of Customs, Abdullahi Argungun described the situation as unfortunate.
“I don’t encourage beating in my house because it never changes anything,” he said.
He said he was not aware of the beating until the time he was invited by the police.
“Hafsat is a dirty and stubborn girl, and she is not observing her daily prayers. As a Muslim, I will not condone that.
“I am the one who stopped her from going to school because it is of no use. She has not been performing well in her class. In fact, she was stealing money to pay her fellow students to write notes for her. She used to pay them N50 per page.
“So what happened is rather unfortunate and as you know we all have our strengths and weaknesses because this is the woman who paid somebody to write WAEC for her (Hafsat).
“As I am talking to you, my wife is under police custody and she is a nursing mother, she has a 6-month old baby. We are taking the baby to her to breastfeed him,” he said.
Hafsat is now staying with her maternal grandmother.
However, all efforts to get the reaction of the police proved abortive as the phone number of the spokesman of the command, ASP Sanusi Abubakar was not reachable.
