A 24-year old woman, Abigail Eguta has admitted battering her 7-year old cousin in Onitsha, Anambra State.
The suspect, both pregnant and nursing mother, said she inflicted injuries on the victim’s body for eating fish she bought for Sunday meal.
She added that she beat him for not correctly reciting the English alphabets (A,B,C,D…).
“Actually, it was not my intention to flog him on the eyes nor to blind him, it was by mistake that the beating extended to his eyes.
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“I am very sorry. Please, forgive me, it is the handiwork of the devil,” she sobbed.
The suspect, said to be a biological sister to the victim’s mother, however claimed she was beaten by her husband, a businessman when he returned and saw what she did to the boy.
The Nation gathered that the victim, simply identified as Sunday, was brought to the office of the Commissioner for Women Affairs in the State by some good-spirited individuals who rescued him from the suspect.
The source further said it was barely a year the victim, an out-of-school child, was brought to the suspect said to hail from Ikwo in Ebonyi State, but residing in Onitsha with her family.
The visibly malnourished boy also sustained swollen eyes he could hardly see with, as well as bruises on different parts of his body.
Reacting, Commissioner for Women Affairs, Ify Obinabo, condemned the act, describing it as unjustifiable and unacceptable.
She decried increasing cases of child abuse in the state, regretting that such heartlessness was becoming rampant among young mothers.
“One wonders why many guardians will have the minds to treat someone else’s children who are in their custody as if they are animals, while they pamper their own children,” she said.
While reprimanding the suspect for what she described as ‘wickedness against another person’s child’, Obinabo reassured her Ministry’s commitment in fishing out and legally dealing with such wicked guardians in the state.
She also ordered the transfer of the case to the Anambra State Police Command for proper investigation, after which the suspect will be charged.
The victim has been taken to an undisclosed hospital in Awka for proper medical attention.