The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Boy

  • My dad slept with my sister five times, boy alleges

    My dad slept with my sister five times, boy alleges

    •Father denies allegation

    A seven-year-old boy, Wisdom Adefemi, yesterday alleged that his father, Olusegun Adefemi, sexually abused his three-year-old sister five times.

    He also accused him of attempting to penetrate him and his five-year-old brother, Godspower, through the anus.

    Wisdom spoke with The Nation at the police headquarters in Ikeja.

    He alleged that their father beat him up for refusing his sexual overtures.

    The boy said: “My daddy slept with my younger sister from here (pointing at the minor’s private parts) He put her on the floor and did it. It was not once, it was five times.

    “He wanted to penetrate me from the back, but I refused. He wanted to do the same thing to my younger brother, Godspower. When we refused, he beat us up.”

    Police Commissioner Edgal Imohimi said the suspect was arrested on February 2 at 6, Ipakan Street, Ijede, Lagos State, after an official of Lagos Neighbourhood Safety Corps (LNSC), Adekoya Sesan, reported the incident.

    The suspect denied the allegation, insisting that he was innocent.

    He said the allegations against him were shocking, wondering what could have prompted them.

    Adefemi said: “I am shocked at the allegations. I am innocent. I have never done it and I will never do it. I heard that my children accused me of defiling their sister. They never said it before me.

    “I thought that they (the police) would bring them (my children) before me and ask them so that I can hear it from them, but they did not.

    “You should know they are children and can be lured by biscuit or sweet to say anything. I do not know where that came from. I know I usually beat up my kids when they do something wrong. I don’t think this is an offence because I don’t want my children to become wayward.

    “Their mother left over a year ago and since then, I have been with them. I do bricklaying jobs sometimes. At other times, I work as a conductor to provide for our needs.”

    The police boss said Adefemi separated from his wife over alleged spousal abuse.

    He alleged: “The man injured his daughter in the private parts as a result of forceful penetration. He caned the girl’s siblings each time they did not allow him to penetrate them from the anus.

    “The girl has been taken to Mirabel Medical Centre for examination and treatment, while her siblings have been accommodated in a temporary home. The suspect will be arraigned after investigation.”

  • Boy, three others killed as container falls on Okada

    Boy, three others killed as container falls on Okada

    A three-year-old boy and three others were killed yesterday when a containerised trailer lost its truckhead on Kara Bridge  on the Lagos-Ibadan Express way.

    The truckhead plunged into the nearby river, while the container fell on a motorcycle on which the boy and her mother were riding. The woman and the motorcyclist are lying critically ill in hospital.

    The remaining part of the truck crashed into the road median, causing traffic gridlock for hours. The traffic stretched from Kara to Ogudu on the Third Mainland Bridge.

    Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) General Manager Adeshina Tiamiyu said investigation showed that the truck head  detached from its body while on motion and rammed into the motorcycle.

    He said: “The head of the truck plunged into Isheri Olofin River. Unfortunately, a three-year-old boy on the motorcycle lost his life while his mother had leg fracture and they have been moved to the hospital by  Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) officials.

    “The head of the truck that plunged into the river was recovered  with the aid of a crane with support from the local divers. Three adult male were extricated and recovered from the truck head and handed over to FRSC officials who moved them down to the morgue.”

    Tiamiyu said among the responders were the Lagos State Ambulance Service (LASAMBUS), Lagos State Fire Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), police  and OP Mesa.

    He advised motorists, especially articulated truck drivers, to  drive within the speed limit and ensure  adherence with road safety regulations.

    Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency (TRACE) public relations officer Babatunde Akinbiyi said the bodies had been deposited at the  Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH) morgue in Sagamu.

    He said: “A container-laden Mark Truck marked NND 133 XA, had a brake failure and rammed into a Bajaj commercial motorcycle with number plate  EKY 221 QA, with the head of the truck plunging into the  river, while the container it was carrying fell on a woman and the child on the motorcycle.

    “We learnt the Okada rider is in the river with the other occupants of the truck, the number of which cannot be ascertained now, as local divers have been contacted for rescue operation.”

  • Manslaughter: Doctors defend UK-based paediatrician convicted for boy’s death

    Hundreds of doctors in the United Kingdom (UK) have opposed a bid to strike off a paediatrician, Dr. Hadiza Bawa-Garba, who was convicted of manslaughter of a six-year-old boy.

    Bawa-Garba (38) of Leicester was accused of medical failings in the death of Jack Adcock.

    The boy was admitted to Leicester Royal Infirmary in the morning of February 18, 2011 with severe vomiting, diarrhoea and breathing difficulties.

    During the trial, the jury heard how Bawa-Garba, an experienced paediatrician, had mistaken Jack for another patient she had treated that day marked “do not resuscitate” (DNR).

    She was also said to have missed the signs of sepsis, a potentially life-threatening complication of an infection.

    Sepsis is said to occur when chemicals released into the bloodstream to fight the infection trigger inflammatory responses throughout the body. This inflammation can trigger a cascade of changes that can damage multiple organ systems, causing them to fail.

    Bawa-Garba was said to have stopped life-saving treatment on Adcock, but treatment was said to have been restarted when a junior doctor pointed out her mistake.

    When a crash team tried to resuscitate the boy, Bawa-Garba told them to stop without looking at his notes, mistaking him for another patient.

    Although it was reported that this did not contribute to Jack’s death, the judge in Dr. Bawa-Garba’s trial said the “extraordinary” error illustrated how bad her care was. She was given a two-year suspended sentence in 2015.

    She was found guilty by a 10-2 majority verdict after the jury deliberated for nearly 25 hours.

    Sister Theresa Taylor (55) of Leicester was found not guilty of the same charge.

    The boy’s parents Nicola and Victor Adcock rejoiced as Bawa-Garba was found guilty, as reported by the Daily Mail.

    Adcock’s mother, Nicola, said: “Our son Jack was a lively and energetic little boy. The room lit up when he walked in with his cheeky smile and his cheeky ways. He drew people to him like a magnet.

    “Our life now is empty, painful and will never be the same again. To say that we miss him does not do justice to our strength of feeling – Jack was an amazing son and one in a million.

    “We have always believed that someone needed to be held accountable for what happened to our son. The guilty verdicts will bring us some closure but the void that has been left in our lives will remain.”

    However, over 700 doctors have come out in Bawa-Garba’s defence, protesting against attempts to strike her off, according to The Times.

    In a letter to the newspaper, the doctors claim the bid by the General Medical Council (GMC) to stop Bawa-Garba from practicing ignores the part short-staffing played in her mistakes.

    They claim it “promotes a climate of defensiveness”, adding that doctors will be scared to admit to errors and patients will not be safer.

    Earlier this year, an independent Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service panel decided Bawa-Garba should not be struck off, citing “the context of wider failures”, such as a lack of other doctors and nurses and delayed test results.

    Instead, she was suspended for at least a year, with the panel saying her mistakes were not “irremediable”.

    The GMC is appealing, saying that public trust in the profession will be harmed if a doctor can continue after a manslaughter conviction. The High Court will hear the case on Thursday.

    However, leading doctors, including Professor Sir Iain Chalmers, a pioneer of evidence-based medicine, and Kim Holt, who blew the whistle over the care of Baby P, tell The Times: “We know of no evidence that terminating Dr. Bawa-Garba’s medical career will make any patient safer. On the contrary, it promotes a climate of defensiveness”.

    David Nicholl, the consultant who organised the letter, said the case had put patient safety back 20 years and warned of a “chilling effect” that would make doctors hide mistakes rather than learn from them.

  • Boy jailed for defiling minor

    A mararaba Upper Area Court in Nasarawa State has sentenced a 16-year-old boy to eight months’’ imprisonment for having carnal knowledge of a four-year-old girl.

    The judge, Mr. Ibrahim Shekarau, sentenced the convict without an option of fine and ordered court officials to give him 14 strokes of the cane.

    He said since the convict was underage, he should be taken to a rehabilitation centre in Kaduna State where he would serve his jail term.

    Shekarau ordered the convict to pay N30,000 to the nominal complainant as money spent for treatment.

    The defendant, a resident of Mararaba in Nasarawa State, pleaded guilty to the charge of gross indecency.

    The police prosecutor, Mr. Godwin Ejeh, said the complainant, Isaac (surname unknown), of the same address with the convict, reported the matter at Abacha Road Police Station, Mararaba, on November 10.

    He said on November 5, the convict had carnal knowledge of the complainant’s daughter.

    Ejeh said the victim was hospitalised.

    He said the offence contravened Section 285 of the Penal Code.

  • Boy, three, in coma needs N9m lifeline

    Boy, three, in coma needs N9m lifeline

    A three-year-old boy, Caleb Popoola, is on admission at the Paediatric and Child Care Unit of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) in Ikeja. He is in a coma on a life support machine. Master Caleb’s doctors have diagnosed him with a brain tumour and he needs N9 million to survive.

    A letter from LASUTH said Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) done on Caleb  showed that he has a large Brainstem glioma with mild hydrocephalus.

    His father, Akeem Popoola said Caleb, his first son, had been on a LASUTH hospital bed for three weeks.

    The distraught father said the surgery would be done at Fortis Hospitals Limited in India.

    He said: “It will cost N2, 711,250 ($7,500), while feeding and accommodation in India will cost N759, 150 ($2,100). Air ticket for Caleb will cost about N5 million because we cannot book normal air ticket for him, although we are still looking for something cheaper.

    “He will be travelling on a stretcher, life oxygen and possibly the airline’s medical team will be on board to support him. My wife and I will also be travelling with him and we will need N860, 000 to buy air tickets because a ticket costs N430, 000 per person.”

    Popoola noted that since the illness began last June 15, the family had spent about N1.8 million on Caleb’s health, including hospital bills and getting an Indian visa.

    He said Caleb’s sickness started with his limping on the right leg.

    “He could not use his right hand and he was less active in school. We took him to a private hospital but we were told nothing was wrong with him. We later took him to LASUTH and we did several tests which came out fine. It was when we did MRI test we discovered that he had the ailment. We were told that where he had the tumour is very delicate and they cannot play around it. I was at the University College Hospital (UCH) in Ibadan and Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital (OAUTH), all to no avail. I was told that his case was delicate and that it could not be handled at the hospitals due to lack of facilities. We are to spend a minimum of 42 days in India,” Popoola said.

    He added: “We have taken him to various churches, including The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) at Mowe and Mountain of Fire Ministries (MFM), for prayers.”

    Popoola is appealing for financial assistance for Caleb. Naira donations can be made to Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB), account name: Popoola Akeem and account number: 0006748242.

    Dollar donations can be paid to Standard Chartered Bank, account name: Popoola Akeem and account number: 0002492351.  He can be reached on 08056573117 or 08095827721.

  • Boy, 3, in coma, needs N9m to live

    Boy, 3, in coma, needs N9m to live

    Three-year-old Caleb Popoola is on a hospital bed at the Paediatric and Child Care unit, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, Lagos. He is in coma on a life support machine. Master Caleb’s doctors have diagnosed him with ‘brain tumour’ and he needs N9million to survive.

    A letter from LASUTH said Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) done on Caleb showed that he has a large Brainstem glioma with mild hydrocephalus.

    His father, Akeem Popoola said Caleb, his first son, had been on a LASUTH hospital bed for three weeks.

    He explained that the surgery would be done at Fortis Hospitals Limited in India.

    He said: “It would cost N2, 711,250:00 ($7,500), while feeding and accommodation in India would cost N759, 150:00 ($2,100). Air ticket for Caleb would cost about N5million, because we cannot book normal air ticket for him, although we are still looking for something cheaper. He would be travelling on a stretcher; life oxygen and possibly the airline’s medical team would be on board to support him. My wife and I would also be traveling with him and we would need N860, 000 to buy air tickets, because ticket costs N430, 000 per person.”

    Popoola noted that since the illness began last June 15, the family has spent about N1.8million on Caleb’s health, including, hospital bills and getting an Indian Visa.

    He said the sickness started with Caleb limping on his right leg.

    “He could not use his right hand and he was less active in school. We took him to a private hospital but we were told nothing was wrong with him; we later took him to LASUTH and we did all sorts of tests which all came out fine. It was when we did MRI test that we discovered that he had the ailment. We were told that where he had the tumour is very delicate and they cannot play around it. I was at University College Hospital (UCH) in Ibadan, Oyo State and Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital (OAUTH), all to no avail. I was told that his case was delicate and he cannot be handled in the hospitals due to lack of facilities. We are to spend a minimum of 42 days in India,” Popoola said.

    He added: “We have taken him to various churches including The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) in Mowe, and Mountain of Fire Ministries (MFM) for prayers.”

    Popoola is appealing for financial assistance for Caleb. Naira donations can be made to Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB), account name: Popoola Akeem and account number, 0006748242.

    Dollar donations can be paid to Standard Chartered Bank, account name: Popoola Akeem and account number: 0002492351.

    He can be reached on 08056573117 or 08095827721.

     

  • The miracle boy of Chibok

    The miracle boy of Chibok

    ALI AHMADU IS just six,  but he has a strong will. He is alive today by the grace of God and his own will to live. Boko Haram did not mean well for the boy when some of its members ran over him with their motorcycles in 2014 in Chibok, Borno State. The incident happened few days after the insurgents abducted over 200 pupils of the Government Girls Secondary School in the early hours of April 15, 2014.

    Ali broke his spinal cord and he was left in that state in the bush for days. No treatment,  nothing. People gave up on him because they thought his case was hopeless, but the small boy did not give up on himself. Where others saw despair and a bad case, he saw hope and life. This was why when he was being taken to Dubai on September 14 for corrective surgery, he called on God in Hausa repeatedly to let him walk again.

    Since He is God that answers prayers,  He granted Ali’s wish. The boy successfully underwent surgery and he can now walk again. The surgeons gave him 14 days to get back on his feet after the operation,  but he surprised them all when he rose on his feet after seven days and began to walk. He is a child of promise and since he is back on his feet, nothing can stop him again. Many thanks to the foundation which footed his hospital bill. By your humanitarian gesture, you have made a bold statement that what matters at the end of the day is our service to humanity and not the wealth we amass.

  • Boy jailed for stealing church’s property

    Boy jailed for stealing church’s property

    An Iyaganku Magistrates’ Court in Ibadan, Oyo State, has sentenced a boy, Muideen Nasiru, to 39 months imprisonment for stealing aluminum frames and other items, worth N500,000, from a church.

    The Magistrate, Mrs O.K. Omotosho, sentenced Nasiru, 18, after he pleaded guilty to a three-count charge of conspiracy, break-in and stealing.

    Omotosho said the convict should spend his prison term at Agodi Prisons, Ibadan.

    “The young boy is a thief, no doubt; he has a godfather, who buys stolen items from him.

    “The society will be better for it if he is incarcerated; he may learn a thing or two in prison.

    “He is hereby sentenced to three months’ imprisonment on count one, 18 months on count two and 18 months on count three,” she said.

    Omotosho held that the sentence should run concurrently.

    Police prosecutor Olalekan Adegbite told the court that the accused committed the offences with others at large at Christ’s Ambassador Church, Inalende, Ibadan.

    He said the accused stole four church bells, a drum set, window frames and four gas lamps.

    Adegbite said the property belonged to the complainant, Rev. Faith Ikumapayi, the church founder.

    The offences contravene sections 390 (9), 415’and 516 of the Criminal Law of Oyo State, 2,000.

  • Chibok boy with nine lives

    Chibok boy with nine lives

    Only the will to live and the grace of God could have sustained little Ali Ahmadu up till now. He was three when the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents returned to his community,  Chibok in Borno State. As usual, they came to loot, rape and kill. Three or so days earlier, they had invaded the Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS) and abducted over 200 pupils. Unknown to many in the country,  the insurgents still had the nerve to return to Chibok to wreak havoc again.

    While the nation was worried over the abducted girls, Boko Haram went on another murderous mission to Chibok. The sect cared less about the storm generated by its action. To the group, it had done nothing – it was all part of its script to cause chaos and make the country ungovernable. Since the government of the day pretended that no girl was abducted in Chibok in the wee hours of April 15, 2014, it is not surprising that it kept quiet when the insurgents went back few days later.

    There was bedlam that day as they went after the villagers, who took to their heels. They ran helter-skelter without any particular destination in mind. All they wanted was to get to somewhere safe in order to avoid the wrath of Boko Haram. Expectant mothers with children strapped to their backs and also pulling one or two other kids along were a spectacle to behold as they ran for their lives. There was no help in sight; they just ran blindly to wherever their legs took them. It was another black day in Chibok, but the incident went unreported.

    However, the story of that fateful day is taking another dimension because of six-year-old Ali. Perhaps, the toddler was kept alive by God so that we will forever remember what happened not only to him, but also countless others that day. There is no record of the incident anywhere, but what other evidence do we need once we see the wheelchair bound Ali, who epitomises the hell the Chibok people went through in the hands of Boko Haram. We do not know the hour that Boko Haram struck, but Ali’s pitiable picture tells plainly the story of the sect’s atrocious act. As Fela would say, they left sorrow,  tears and blood.

    But Ali survived the evil act at a cost.  His spinal cord was broken. We do not know what happened to his expectant mother.  Did she deliver the baby? Her mother and baby alive? Was Ali the only survivor in his family? A mother’s love cannot be quantified. All Ali’s mother wanted was to get herself, son and unborn child to safety. But as she ran from the invading fundamentalists, she fell and Ali fell off her back and the terrorists overran the boy with their motorcycles.

    Narrating Ali’s pathetic story in Abuja on Sunday before the boy and his aunt, Mrs Hannatu Madu, left for Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), founder of GIPLC Nuhu Kwajafa said : “With mother and child seriously injured, Ali was kept under a tree for about three days without any form of medication. He was bleeding from mouth and nose. Ali has remained bedridden as a result of his spinal cord injury”.  GIPLC and the Dickens Sanomi Foundation are collaborating to ensure that Ali walks again to fulfil his destiny. It is a miracle that he has survived up till now giving the condition under which he has lived since he broke his spinal cord.

    That he did not die under those circumstances show the grace of God upon his life. Besides, the boy has also shown uncommon will to live. He has held on to hope in the last three years and we can only join him in prayers that his corrective surgery will be successful.  Ali came to limelight few months ago when Vice President Yemi Osinbajo received him and some Chibok leaders at the State House in Abuja. May be, the foundation got to know about his case during that visit.  The foundation has embarked on a worthy cause and we pray for a happy ending.

    As little as the boy is,  he knows how dire his condition is and he has been praying to God for healing. Before his trip, he prayed repeatedly in Hausa : “Ina so insake tafiya da kafana…Don Allah ataimakamu…Don Allah. Ina so in je makaranta”. (“I want to begin to walk with my legs again. For God’s sake,  assist me. I want to go to school”).

    What an irony.  Those who wanted to kill him are campaigning against western education under the guise of propagating Islam,  a religion which enjoins its faithful to seek knowledge even in distant land. As he has prayed, so shall God do unto him.  May Ali walk back home on his legs.

  • Boy, 16, lynched for theft

    A 16-year-old boy, Ayuba Agboola, was on Monday lynched to death at Imota, Ikorodu, for allegedly stealing an engine block.

    The incident occurred around 10pm at Ogunyombo Street, Imota.

    It was gathered that the teenager was beaten to a coma and died at a hospital where he was taken to.

    The deceased’s father, Musibau Agboola, who reported the incident to the police, accused Sesan Adebola, 20, Samuel Ajejiowon, 20, Akeem Limina, 22, Sunday  23 and Olanike Jenyo, 20 of committing the act.

    Confirming the incident, the command’s spokesman, Olarinde Famous-Cole, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) said the suspects had been arrested and detained.

    He said: “The scene of the crime was visited and photographs were taken. The corpse was deposited at Ikorodu General Hospital mortuary for autopsy. Investigation is ongoing.”