By ADELEKE ADESANYA & HAULAT AFOLABI
A human rights organisation, Child Advocate, has vowed to petition the authorities of the Nigerian Army against a soldier, Babatunde Kuti, for allegedly shielding his wife, Saude Kuti, who allegedly burnt the face of her 10-year-old step-son with a pressing iron.
The leader of the NGO and human rights lawyer, Barrister Toyin Ndidi, who spoke with our correspondent, said findings had revealed that the soldier had been shielding his wife, who is currently at large after scalding his own son’s face with a hot pressing iron.
According to the human rights organisation, “The ultimatum that we and the police gave to him expired today, and the next step now is to write the Army authorities about this issue. He has been indulging the woman to perpetrate evils against his own children. When we went to his residence to affect her arrest, her husband, who is a soldier, prevented the police from doing their job, but the residents told us she was inside the house.
“After several hours of dragging the issue with him, the Military Police had to come in and they gave him some days to produce the woman. But even at that, he insisted he would not do anything because he is a soldier, and as it is, we are going ahead to petition the Army authorities to compel him to produce the woman or face the music.”
Recall that Saude Kuti, allegedly scalded the face of her 10-year-old step-son, Ezekiel Kuti, with a hot pressing iron for spilling groundnut oil on the floor.
Our correspondent learnt that the young boy lives with his father, who is an Army Personnel, and stepmother, at the Owode area of Ogun State.
It was gathered that Ezekiel mistakenly spilled the groundnut oil on the floor, but afraid of being punished for this by his step-mother, he filled up the bottle with water.
Meanwhile, findings revealed that the 10-year-old boy had allegedly been experiencing serial abuses from his step-mother before the incident, while his father, Babatunde Kuti, allegedly pretended not to be aware of the ordeal his young son had been going through in the hands of his wife.
According to Ezekiel, “I wanted to take something from the cupboard, when the groundnut oil mistakenly spilled on the floor and I immediately scooped it back into the bottle and when I realised that the oil did not fill the bottle back, I added water into it, because I wanted to avoid being beaten by my stepmother.
“When she came back and noticed the bottle was not the way she left it, she called me and asked what happened. She started beating me, but when she realised that I didn’t cry, she plugged the electric iron and when it was hot, she pressed it on my face.”
A resident of the area, Risikat Atiloja, who spoke with our correspondent, said, “The woman is not different from a witch, especially with the manner she maltreats the boy and his sisters. She has no regard for these kids. There are some occasions that she will starve them, forcing them to beg neighbours around for food, before she returns home. And what is so worrying is that their father will even indulge the woman. Please, if there is a way the government can retrieve these children from them, it will be better.”
Further investigations revealed that because of Ezekiel’s step-mother’s alleged ill-treatment of her step-children, she was barred from the Ikeja Military Cantonment, where the family once lived.
Ezekiel’s elder sister, Eniola Kuti, alleged that her 10-year-old younger brother was not their step-mother’s first victim, as her three elder siblings had at one time or the other had the sour taste of her alleged cruelty.
“She had once poured hot water on me, but my father forced my elder sister Dolapo, through beating and threats, to claim that she was the one who did the evil act,” Eniola alleged.
According to a report obtained from a Non-Governmental Organisation, Child Protection Network and some other human rights bodies that have intervened in the matter, Ezekiel’s step-mother had also been charged once with the abuse of one of the children, Dolapo Kuti, before a Magistrate’s court, but she was discharged for lack of diligent
prosecution.
It was also gathered that the Saude fled immediately the incident happened.
The Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, could not be reached as at press time to comment on the matter.
Calls put through to the police spokesperson were not answered and he also did not reply text messages sent to him.
