Matilda Omonaiye/
Police have arrested a woman in Lagos for allegedly burning her 14-year-old daughter with hot electric iron over missing N250.
NewsmakersNG learnt that the woman, Ayo Sheriff, attacked the victim, Aishat, whom she delivered while she was aged 14, at their residence in Ijora, last Tuesday.
Police spokesman, SP Chike Oti, said in a statement today that the incident was reported by an orphanage located in the same neighbourhood as the victim’s.
The statement by the police read: “The Lagos State Police Command is investigating a case of child abuse reported by Chosen Child Orphanage Home, located at Gastya Estate, Ijora-Badia on behalf of Aishat Sheriff, a 16-year-old girl child whose upper and lower right limbs were allegedly burnt by her biological mother, one Ayo Sheriff, 30 years old, by means of electric pressing iron over minor misunderstanding.
“What led to the abuse was that the victim, who is a student of a secondary school and also a part time student nurse in auxiliary capacity, was given the sum of five hundred Naira by her boss with an instruction to hand two hundred Naira to someone on her way home, use fifty Naira as transport fare and return the balance of two hundred and fifty to the boss the next day.
“However, on the day she was supposed to return the balance of the money to her boss, the victim defaulted. She told her boss that the money was with her mother. The boss called her mother on the phone and she denied knowledge of the money.
‘When the victim returned home from work, her mother who was already waiting for her, plugged an electric iron and waited until it was red hot. At this stage, she used the red hot iron to welcome her daughter home, accusing her of being a disgrace to the family.”
Following the incident, Oti said the commissioner of police, Edgal Imohimi, expressed worry about the increasing cases of domestic abuse in the state
The police boss was also disturbed by the horrible wounds inflicted on the child by her mother and therefore “appealed to parents to correct their children in love”, Oti further stated.
The police spokesman added that the Gender Section of the Lagos Police Command had concluded investigation into the case and would charge the suspect at the Ikeja Magistrates’ Court on April 39.
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