BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
Some concerned residents of Isale-Osun area of Osogbo, Osun State, have rescued a five-year-old girl identified as Aishat Taiwo from her aunt, Adenike Lanre, who allegedly held her hostage for over five months.
The embittered residents alleged that the minor was starved and incarcerated for the period before reprieve came her way recently.
It was gathered that the bubble burst recently when those in the neighbourhood discovered that Lanre confined her niece in a dilapidated building at the back of her house where she reportedly fed her once a week.
Following the complaint by her neighbours to the Ministry of Children and Women Affairs in the state, some of the officials of the ministry, alongside some security operatives, visited the community and broke the doors leading to where the girl was being kept.
Lanre was consequently arrested by the police.
The Commissioner for Children and Women Affairs, Olubukola Olaboopo, describing Taiwo’s experience in the custody of her aunt as demeaning, said that justice would be served on the suspect.
The Commissioner observed that the girl, said to have been locked up in a dilapidated building used by the people in the neighbourhood as a dumpsite, looked pale and weak owing to lack of proper care.
“We are worried by the state of child abuse in our society. We won’t rest on our oars in making those culpable to dance to the music of justice. This act of confinement is wicked and inhuman. To even think that the girl is her (Lanre’s) niece makes one wonder what the world is turning to.
“The woman is living in a building that has 10 rooms but couldn’t allow her niece to live in any of the rooms other than an abandoned building where it stinks. The girl defecates and urinates at the spot where she is. We heard that she is being served (food) once a week but I doubt this. She looks so sick, thin and weak. The police have arrested her (the aunt) and she will be prosecuted. She has been blaming the devil for her actions.”
“These ugly incidents are pointers to the fact that we, as government, would not relax in our sensitization against child abuse
“
Again, the Commissioner said, “Recently, we rescued a boy that was put inside a sack and locked up in a cupboard by her mother. Her mother claimed that she confined him because the boy got food on credit from a food vendor. This is a woman that did not provide food for her son before leaving the house.
“These ugly incidents are pointers to the fact that we, as government, would not relax in our sensitization against child abuse.”
Olaboopo, noting that Taiwo’s hair was already falling off when recovered from isolation with her left arm fractured, disclosed that she had been taken to the hospital for treatment.
Following her treatment, it was gathered that Taiwo was taken to a welfare home in the state for proper attention.
Meanwhile, Lanre, 43, has been arraigned before a Magistrate Court sitting in Osogbo for allegedly confining and subjecting her niece to a deplorable condition.
The police told the court that Lanre failed to take good care of her five-year-old niece, but locked her up in a dilapidated structure at Isale-Osun area of Osogbo.
Police prosecutor, Inspector Temitope Fatoba, said that the defendant committed the offence between April and December, 2021 adding that Lanre deprived the girl of her liberty.
The charge against the woman read that “Adenike Lanre, between the months of April and November, 2021, at Isale-Osun in the Osogbo Magisterial District, having been charged with the duty of providing the necessities of life for one Aishat Taiwo, aged 5, and without lawful excuse, failed to do so.
“Lanre, on the same date, did unlawfully deprive Aishat Taiwo of her liberty by confining or detaining her in a dilapidated building for more than five months.”
Fatoba said that the defendant committed offences contrary to and punishable under sections 339 and 365 of the Criminal Code, Cap 34, Volume II, Laws of Osun State, 2002.
The defendant, however, pleaded not guilty to the two-count-charge slammed against her.
The defence counsel, A. S. Olaniyi, applied for her bail stating that Lanre had reliable persons to stand for her.
Magistrate A. O. Odeleye admitted the defendant to bail in the sum of N50, 000 with one surety in like amount. The surety, the court ruled, must be a relative of the defendant and must reside within the court’s jurisdiction.
The matter was adjourned till January 25, 2022.
