The Lagos State Police Command have arrested a housewife, Grace Monday, for allegedly torturing her three-year-old niece, Miracle Peter, to a coma. Grace allegedly flogged the victim for several hours at their home in the Ireodun, Agege area of Lagos State and subsequently slammed her head against a wall causing the toddler to faint. The offence of the toddler was that she always messed up the room with excreta.
The suspect had been married for seven years without a child and had travelled to Kaduna sometime in July, 2015, to get the victim from her elder brother. It was learnt that the toddler was always messing up the house with excrement and after verbal correction did not work, the suspect resorted to beating her. On the day the toddler was beaten to a coma, she was rushed to a private hospital and was later referred to a general hospital in the state for intensive care.
Monday’s neighbour, Adijat Fatai, said she had warned her on several occasions to stop flogging the victim. In her words:
“Miracle (Peter) always defecated all over the house. I called Grace and advised her to be patient with the little girl because it could be that God was using the girl to test her patience.
“Sometime in October, I saw her cleaning the child up after she had defecated; she was beating her as well. I warned her three different times to stop flogging her because it was getting excessive. She didn’t listen to me and I immediately suspected she was under a spell.
“I told her husband to caution her but he told me Miracle’s father instructed them to beat her till she stopped purging. I left them and went inside my room. It was the following morning she came to call me that the girl had fainted.”
The Divisional Police Officer, Isokoko Police Division, Badmos Dolapo, said she was in tears after seeing the victim.
“In all my years in the police force, I have never cried. But seeing the damage that had been done to this child, I could not hold back tears; I wept like a baby. She had been brutalised. We will not leave any stone unturned in this case,” she said.
What a shame! How could this woman be so heartless? Let me not judge her …