A drunk mother, Princess Jokotade Eshinlokun, has been arrested by the police for an offence bearing on assault on her own child, Michael Ehijator.
Eshinlokun had accused Michael, 14, of stealing her money, and to get him to confess, allegedly battered him with bottle and steel food flask, resulting in severe injuries on his head.
Michael’s mother, who is a resident of 15, Oyekan Street, in the Agunfoye area of Ikorodu, was, however, alleged to have attacked her son under the influence of alcohol.
According to a source, trouble started when she returned home from an outing, where she got drunk, to discover that the sum of N16,000 she had kept at home was missing.
After searching for the missing money for over an hour, the mother of five was said to have pounced on her son, accusing him of stealing the money and allegedly torturing him in the process.
A resident, Tola Oyejobi, told our correspondent that “Jokotade wouldn’t have done such a thing, but for the influence of alcohol on her.
“Jokotade went for an outing on Sunday, only to return home and discover that her money was missing from her bag. I think the anger about the missing money was aggravated by her drunkenness, leading to her violent attack on her son.”
Another neighbour, who simply identified himself as Bello, said, “The woman is not worthy to have the custody of the children. When you see the environment where she nurtures them, you will plead with the government to take them from her. And despite this, she herself drinks around and lives a careless lifestyle.
“I cannot imagine a mother will beat her child while being drunk. What if it was a knife that she used on that day, she would have killed her. The woman broke the little boy’s head with bottle, when he denied taking the money she was searching for.”
One of the activists, who reported the case to the police at the Ikorodu Division said, “Michael Ehijator, aged 14, was assaulted by his mother, Princess Jokotade Eshinlokun.
“She hit him on the head with a stainless steel food flask, causing his head to split open. Apparently, Princess Jokotade Eshinlokun had gone out on the evening of Sunday. When she returned home drunk, and found that N16,000 was missing, she accused her son, Michael, of stealing it and hit him on his head with the food flask.
Our correspondent also learnt that the police at the Ikorodu Division later gave the custody of the children to Jokotade’s mother.
The decision, it was learnt, followed an inspection of her house and the discovery that she was not capable of keeping the five children in her custody, being a single parent.
Mother of the suspect, Mrs. Taiwo Shogeke, told our correspondent that she was shocked when she received the news that her daughter had been arrested for child abuse.
“She must have been influenced by something else truly, because I can’t believe that she could be so frustrated to the level of assaulting her own child like that,” she said.
Shogeke, however, confirmed to our correspondent that she had taken custody of the children from Jokotade.
“I later took custody of the children when police and the activists said they were taking them from her. They said she didn’t have the capacity to take care of them,” she said.
