Skip to main content

Mother burns her 10-year-old daughter's face with electric iron in Akwa Ibom over missing 200 Naira

A 10-year-old girl, Udeme Usen Etukudoh, may have been scarred for life after her mother burnt her face with electric iron for allegedly stealing N200.

The incident happened yesterday in Ikot Ekang Itam, Uruan Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. Read report by an NGO, Child's Right and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN).

Mother burns her 10-year-old daughter

Early Thursday, I met ten-year-old Udeme Usen Etukudoh, an indigene of Ikot Ekang Itam, being treated for burns and a deep cut on her face at a small pharmacy along Calabar/Itu Road. Upon inquiry, I learned that Udeme was severely abused by her own mother for "stealing N200", the sum which is less than a dollar.
Udeme, a Primary 5 pupil of RCM School, near Itam Police Divisional Headquarters, said her mother, because of the missing N200, pushed the plug of an electric iron into an electrical socket and further applied the extremely hot device on parts of her body. The burnings later disfigured her face. Not satisfied with the burns, the girl said her mother used a short wood to hit and tear open her right chin just by her eye. Her mother, Aniedi Etim Akpan (according to the little girl), had gone out for petty trading at the popular Itam market as of the time I visited their house to make findings. Udeme's stepfather, whose name could not be ascertained at the time of checks, and a woman who said she was the little girl's elder sister, said that the missing money was stolen by Udeme, and that she deserved the burns dealt on her as "punishment". But the little girl, who lives with her mother and stepfather, denied stealing the money. She said anytime money gets missing from her step father's pocket or house, the theft would be attributed to her. She said she was innocent of the accusation. Upon further inquiry, Udeme led me to her biological father, Usen Okon Etukudoh, a bricklayer who lives just close to where his daughter lives with her mother. Usen said Udeme had opted to stay with her mother, Aniedi, after their separation some years back, but that he would stab his former wife with a broken bottle if anything happens to his daughter.
As at 11.30 am, Udeme, dressed in her school uniform, had not taken breakfast when I met her at the pharmacy. To show the extent of trauma the little girl went through, the step-father who took her to the pharmacy shop rejected the bill of N4,000 he was asked to pay for the child's emergency treatment. He wanted to pay N2,000 instead. I had to buy a loaf of bread and Coca-Cola so that she could eat something before being administered with what the pharmacy attendant called "inflammatory injection" to stop the pain. Two things are likely to happen to the child if her father decides to let her stay continuously with her mother (as I later told him): it is either that she leaves the house (to God knows where) in order to be free from torture or she gets killed secretly by her mother and stepfather. God help the hapless child!

Mother burns her 10-year-old daughter
Her mother, Aniedi Etim Akpan.

Mother burns her 10-year-old daughter
Mother burns her 10-year-old daughter
Mother burns her 10-year-old daughter

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

136 new cases of Coronavirus recorded in Nigeria

  136 new cases of Coronavirus were recorded in Nigeria on Saturday September 26, as confirmed by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).    A breakdown of the new cases across states is as follows; Lagos-41, Ogun-27, Rivers-19, Abia-10, Oyo-6, Plateau-6, Bauchi-5, Ondo-5, Ekiti-4, Kaduna-4, Edo-3, Ebonyi-2, Bayelsa-1, Delta-1, Osun-1, Yobe-1.    There are now 58,198 confirmed cases of Coronavirus in the country and 1,106 deaths have been recorded. 49,722 patients who recovered from the disease have also been discharged.     
Post a Comment
Read more

Suspected cultists storm bar in Delta state and kill Polytechnic graduate

             A Mass Communication graduate of the Delta State Polytechnic, Ogwashi-Uku was shot dead by suspected cultists on Thursday, August 13.   According to reports, the deceased identified as Oboh, was watching a match at a bar at Umuagu Quarters in Asaba, the state capital, when the gunmen stormed the place, went directly to where he was seated and shot him dead at close range.   "Oboh only came to watch a football match in the bar and he was drinking around 10:00pm when three gunmen came into bar and shot him four times and dragged his lifeless body outside the place. The gunmen put off the generator set and told everyone to remain calm that they came for Oboh alone," an eyewitness said   In a related development, a middle-aged man was said to have been shot dead in what looked like a reprisal on Isieke Quarters in the early hours of Friday August 14  in Asaba.   Confirming both incidents, the spokesperson for the police in Delta, DSP Onome Onovwakpoyeya, said the com
Post a Comment
Read more

Female journalist shot dead while covering a riot in Londonderry, Ireland

A female journalist has been shot dead while covering a riot in Londonderry, Ireland. Lyra McKee, 29, is believed to have been hit by a stray bullet after a gunman opened fire indiscriminately at around 11pm. Shortly before she was killed, Ms McKee, who was covering the riots, had posted an image from the scene of the riots on Twitter. She captioned it: "Derry tonight. Absolute madness." Shocking footage posted to social media shows a gunman in a mask taking cover near the rioters before firing two shots. Seconds later screams are heard coming from the other end of the road. Police revealed this morning that it believes the New IRA was "most likely" behind McKee's killing, calling Ms McKee a "completely innocent bystander. " Assistant chief constable Mark Hamilton described the killing as "not only a murder of a young woman, it is an attack again on the people of this city." Friends who are mourning McKee de
Post a Comment
Read more