A 10-year-old boy, Abdullahi Taoreed, is still finding it difficult to come to terms with the fact that a woman has has called 'Mummy' over the years could be so brutal as to use a razor blade to slash his hands and rubbed pepper into the wounds: his crime?
Going to a neighbour's party across the road and eating food he was served, even when there was no food provided for him at hime.
Though the woman, Ronke Olayinka is not the boy's biological mother, but his father's sister, he has always known and called her mother when his biological mother dumped him at age one and he was handed over to Olayinka to take care of.
But over the years, the primary two pupil has known no love as 'his mummy' takes delight in beating him over any act by the kid, especially after the death of his father. leaving him an orphan.
But the last straw that had her arrested by policemen from Oke-Odo Police State in Lagos, happened when Olayinka pounced on the boy and beat him within an inch of his life on June 7, 2015.
She used sticks and wood and to cap it all, used blades to slash his hands and head.
It was neighbours at the Pipeline Street residence of the family that reported the brutal act to the police and Olayinka was arrested.
This is how the poor orphan narrated his ordeal:
"Yes, it was my mummy who inflicted blade cuts on my hands because I went to a party opposite our house to eat. There was no food at home.
I was hungry, so I assisted the people holding the party to carry chairs. I knew that if I assisted them, they would give me food. They gave me food. My sister went to report to my mummy.
My mummy used wood to hit me on the head. We went for evening prayer. After the prayer, my mummy called me and started cutting my hands with a blade. She went out to buy the blade.
The cut was deep. She poured pepper into the wounds. She then gave me a hot pot of beans to carry to the kitchen with the bloodied hands. One of our neighbours, a woman, saw me and took the pot from me.
She went and told everyone in the compound. People saw my hands and started crying.
It’s not every time my mummy gives me food. She uses a piece of wood to beat me, but uses canes on her kids."
