allegedly torturing her three-year-old niece, Miracle Peter, to a
coma.
We learnt that Monday allegedly flogged the victim for several hours
at their home in the Irepodun, Agege area of Lagos State and
subsequently slammed her head against a wall causing the toddler
to faint.
The offence of the toddler was that she always messed up the
room with excreta.
Our correspondent learnt that Monday had been married for seven
years without a child and had travelled to Kaduna sometime in July,
2015, to get the victim from her elder brother.
It was learnt that the toddler was always messing up the house with
excrement and after verbal correction did not work, the suspect
resorted to beating her.
On the day the toddler was beaten to a coma, she was rushed to
a private hospital and was later referred to a general hospital in
the state for intensive care.
Monday’s neighbour, Adijat Fatai, said she had warned her on
several occasions to stop flogging the victim.
She said, “Miracle (Peter) always defecated all over the house. I
called Grace and advised her to be patient with the little girl because
it could be that God was using the girl to test her patience.
“Sometime in October, I saw her cleaning the child up after she had
defecated; she was beating her as well. I warned her three different
times to stop flogging her because it was getting excessive. She
didn’t listen to me and I immediately suspected she was under a
spell.
“I told her husband to caution her but he told me Miracle’s father
instructed them to beat her till she stopped purging. I left them and
went inside my room. It was the following morning she came to call
me that the girl had fainted.”
We gathered that the landlord, Fatai Alimi, reported the matter at
the Isokoko Police Division.
He alleged that Monday had inflicted several injuries on the
body of the victim, adding that she slammed Peter’s head
against the wall.
“We rushed her to a private hospital and I had to borrow money for
her to be admitted and treated because the hospital management
said we must deposit some money. She spent three days at the
hospital. When they could no longer handle it, they referred her to a
general hospital,” he added.
Alimi, who said Peter was placed on oxygen, added that she
was incapacitated by the torture.
But a friend of the suspect, Alice Abuye, claimed that Monday did
not slam her niece’s head against the wall.
Abuye, who claimed to be a confidante of the suspect, said she
(Monday) had called her to express her frustration with Peter’s
incessant defecation.
“Grace (Monday) loves little children. Unfortunately, she had been
married for seven years without any issue. She said I should release
my child to her so she could train her till she got her own but I
refused. I told her to go to her village and get her relative’s child.
“On the night preceding the incident, she called me that the girl had
started defecating again. After beating her, Miracle (Peter) told her
if she confessed the reason for her misbehaviour, some spiritual
forces would punish her. Grace and her husband prayed till 3am
after hearing that.
“Around 8am, she woke up and saw that Miracle was still sleeping.
She woke her up to give her a bath. She was about leaving the
house when she saw the girl had hit her head against the wall.
Grace did not touch her.”
Abuye told us that the victim had been discharged from the
hospital and released to the family.
But the Divisional Police Officer, Isokoko Police Division,
Badmos Dolapo, said she was in tears after seeing the victim.
“In all my years in the police force, I have never cried. But seeing
the damage that had been done to this child, I could not hold back
tears; I wept like a baby. She had been brutalised. We will not leave
any stone unturned in this case,” she said.
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