A 10 year-old girl says she threw her step brother, Usman Abubakar, a one year eight months old boy inside a well because his mother always maltreated her.
The girl said this while being paraded along with 34 other suspects by the Ondo State Commissioner of Police, Mr Salami Bolaji on Friday in Akure.
The girl, who said that she did not know that Usman would die said she carried out the action out of frustration and the level of maltreatment she had suffered at the hands of Usman’s mother.
“My mother is no more with my father but she had nine children for my father and two died, so, it is Usman’s mother that cooks for us.
“They love Usman more than me, whenever Usman defecates or urinates on our food, his mother will ask us to eat it like that, and that nothing will happen to us.
“Usman’s mother will only remove where the feces is and instruct us to eat it and if we refuse, she will beat us.
“So, on the day the incident happened, Usman had feces on his body and I was told to fetch water from well to wash his body.
“As I was going to fetch the water, Usman followed me and I threw him inside the well and informed my father that someone with ‘Hijab’ came and kidnapped Usman.
“My father said I should tell the police when we got to the station that it was my mother and her friend that kidnapped Usman, I told him that I can not lie against my mother, but my father said I should say it and that nothing will happen to me.
“Meanwhile, I am the one that threw Usman inside well and I didn’t know that he will die,” she said.
The commissioner of Police, explained that the girl committed the crime on Dec. 15 at Owode, behind Central Mosque in Akure North Local Government Area of the state.
Bolaji, who said that the detectives swung into action on receipt of the information and arrested the suspect, added that the deceased’s corpse was later recovered from the well.
“She has confessed to the crime. There is nothing we can do than to charge her to court because this is homicide. Other paraded suspects will soon be arraigned in court as well,” Bolaji said.
