Residents rescue boy from abuse, hand over suspect to police

Residents of Union Estate in Ilamoshe, Oke-Afa, Ejigbo area of Lagos, at the weekend, rescued an 11-year-old boy from persistent child abuse and human rights violation meted out to him by his guardians.

Briefing residents yesterday, the Public Relations Officer of the estate, Chris Santus, disclosed that the incident happened in Arochukwu Street. He said: “Our security men at the Arochukwu gate found a boy of about 11 years crying and shivering at the gate. His body was brutalized badly. On interrogating the boy, he said the woman he was staying with used a mopping stick on him. As if that was not enough, she went out to get a cable to use on him, at this point he had to run for hiding at Arochukwu security post where the security man on guard saw him and raised alarm.

“This was brought to the attention of some of our executives. They waded into the case and found the need to report the case immediately to the police. The police took over the case by arresting the culprit, Mrs Igwe.”

When accosted, the woman didn’t express any remorse for the abuse. She was defending her actions and claiming she only talks to him. Describing it as man’s inhumanity to man, the estate authorities warned residents who are in the habit of abusing children to desist from it as the estate would not hesitate to hand them over to the appropriate authority.

Also condemning the act, another resident, simply identified as Yinka, said: “The society needs to frown at such abuse of kids because it is such children that grow up to become miscreants. We need to take this up seriously. People like this woman will make miscreants off kids by victimising them and making them take to the streets. Those kids will in return invade our community causing unrest while in search for food outside the homes where they should have found comfort in the first place.”