A seven-year-old girl, Mazichukwu, is battling with burns allegedly inflicted on her by her aunt, whom she lives with on Josiah Aina Street, Alakuko, Lagos State.
The aunt, Mrs Loveth Ozoihu, reportedly
punished the girl by beating her with a hot knife for allegedly stealing
chewing gum belonging to their neighbour’s child.
PUNCH Metro
learnt that Ozoihu, a trader, had sent Mazichukwu to give the neighbour
the change for the goods she bought from her. The girl reportedly met
the woman’s kid holding the candy and collected it from her. She was
said to have returned home, chewing the gum, which she confessed to have
collected from the neighbour’s kid when her aunt asked her where she
got it from.
Enraged by Mazichukwu’s conduct, Ozoihu reportedly
lit a gas cooker at midnight and put a knife on the burner. She
reportedly placed the hot knife on the girl’s buttocks, leaving her to
groan with pains. It was learnt that the Enugu State indigene later took
the girl to a chemist’s shop, where a substance was applied to the
injury.
A good Samaritan, who got wind of the assault, reported
the case to the police at the Alakuko Division and Ozoihu was arrested.
In her statement to the police, the 25-year-old suspect denied
assaulting the girl, but claimed that Mazichukwu mistakenly sat on the
burner.
But Mazichukwu faulted her aunt’s claim before the police, insisting that the woman inflicted the burns on her buttocks.
Ozoihu was subsequently arraigned before an Ogba Magistrates’ Court on one count of assault occasioning harm.
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