Grace Monday, who has been married for 7 years without having any child of her own travelled to Kaduna to visit her older brother. When she got there, she asked him to give her his 3 year old daughter so she could train and take care of her well being. Her brother agreed and gave his 3 year old daughter, Miracle Peter, to her sometime in July 2015.
The 3 year old who apparently hadn't been potty trained kept defecating in the house. Probably because Monday who hadn't potty trained the toddler, didn't put diapers on her either. The toddler's defecation around the house always got on Monday's nerves and rather than help the toddler by potty training her, she flogged her severely, hoping the pain she inflicted on her would stop the behavior.
Monday was arrested in Lagos for allegedly torturing the three-year-old niece, Miracle Peter, to a coma.
According to reports, she allegedly flogged the little child for several hours at their home in the Ireodun, Agege area of Lagos State and subsequently slammed her head against a wall causing the toddler to faint.
On the day the toddler was beaten to a coma, she was rushed to a private hospital and was later referred to a general hospital in the state for intensive care.
Monday’s neighbour, Adijat Fatai, said she had warned her on several times to stop flogging the child.
She said,
“Miracle (Peter) always defecated all over the house. I called Grace and advised her to be patient with the little girl because it could be that God was using the girl to test her patience.
“Sometime in October, I saw her cleaning the child up after she had defecated; she was beating her as well. I warned her three different times to stop flogging her because it was getting excessive. She didn’t listen to me and I immediately suspected she was under a spell.
“I told her husband to caution her but he told me Miracle’s father instructed them to beat her till she stopped purging. I left them and went inside my room. It was the following morning she came to call me that the girl had fainted.”
PUNCH Metro gathered that the landlord, Fatai Alimi, reported the matter at the Isokoko Police Division when he learned of the incident.
He alleged that Monday had inflicted several injuries on the body of the toddler, adding that she had slammed Peter’s head against the wall.
He said:
“We rushed her to a private hospital and I had to borrow money for her to be admitted and treated because the hospital management said we must deposit some money. She spent three days at the hospital. When they could no longer handle it, they referred her to a general hospital,” he added.
Alimi, who said Peter was placed on oxygen, added that she was incapacitated by the torture.
However, Abuye, who claimed to be a confidante and friend of the suspect, said she (Monday) had called her to express her frustration with Peter’s constant defecation around the house.
She said:
“Grace (Monday) loves little children. Unfortunately, she had been married for seven years without any issue. She said I should release my child to her so she could train her till she got her own but I refused. I told her to go to her village and get her relative’s child.
“On the night preceding the incident, she called me that the girl had started defecating again. After beating her, Miracle (Peter) told her if she confessed the reason for her misbehaviour, some spiritual forces would punish her. Grace and her husband prayed till 3am after hearing that.
“Around 8am, she woke up and saw that Miracle was still sleeping. She woke her up to give her a bath. She was about leaving the house when she saw the girl had hit her head against the wall. Grace did not touch her.”
The Divisional Police Officer, Isokoko Police Division, Badmos Dolapo, said the toddler was in a very bad shape when she saw her and that it made her cry like a baby.
“In all my years in the police force, I have never cried. But seeing the damage that had been done to this child, I could not hold back tears; I wept like a baby. She had been brutalised. We will not leave any stone unturned in this case,” she said.
The Lagos State Office of the Public Defender took custody of the toddler.
The Public Relations Officer of the OPD, Adeoba Adeniji-Adele, who spoke for the Director of the agency, Mrs. Omotola Rotimi, said the victim could no longer walk due to what she went through in the hands of her aunt.
He said the agency was awaiting the doctor’s report on the case.
Source: Punch
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