Nurse Sets 11-Yr Old Girl Ablaze
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
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Doctors at the General Hospital,
Gbagada, Lagos, southwest Nigeria, are seriously battling to save the life of
an 11-year old girl, Ita Bassey-Eno, who was allegedly set ablaze by the woman
she lives with, Mrs Nkese Iroakazi, a nurse at a hospital in Surulere.
Iroakazi was alleged to have poured
kerosene on Bassey-Eno before lighting a match stick to set her ablaze after
the girl was said to have stolen a piece of meat from the pot.
Witnesses said the girl ran out of
their apartment at 7, Adeniran Ogunsanya Street, Surulere, unto to the
main road with fire all over her body as she cried for help from passers-by to
rescue her.
It was gathered that someone quickly
stopped his vehicle and used his fire extinguisher to put out the flame on her
body.
The incident, which occurred last
Saturday, was immediately reported at the Bode Thomas Police Station and the
police from the station arrested Mrs. Nkese.
The little girl was rushed to the
Burns and Trauma Centre, an annex of the Lagos State University Teaching
Hospital at the General Hospital, Gbagada, for urgent attention as the doctors
in the hospital said she had suffered 95 percent burns and would take a miracle
for her to survive.
Bassey-Eno’s private part was
damaged, while almost all her body is burnt. The whole of her body, except her
face and her feet, are bandaged, while she wears pampers because her private
part was damaged.
On her hospital bed on Monday, the little was groaning in pains while health officials described
Nkese as callous woman and that she must be made to face the music.
Executive Director, Esther Child
Rights Foundation, ECRF, Mrs. Esther Ogwu, who was at the hospital to see the
girl, wept when she saw her pathetic state, saying that in all her life as human
rights activist, she had never come across such a gruesome case as that
of the little girl.
According to Ogwu, “the situation is
terrible. The doctor said the girl suffered 95 percent burns and that her
private part has been damaged. This woman is more than wicked. Justice must
take its course.
“One of the health officials at the
General Hospital, Gbagada called me and said a woman poured kerosene on the
little girl staying with her and lit up a match stick and set her ablaze. The
girl ran out of the house to the main road where a Good Samaritan used her car
fire extinguisher to put out the fire.”
Little Bassey-Eno, who hails from
Akwa Ibom State, southsouth Nigeria, was brought from the village with another
girl, Happiness Okon-Bassey, 13, to live with Nkese in June 2013 on the premose
that she would send them to school, but that was not to be as the two girls
allegedly performed the function of domestic servants for Nkese.
The second house girl, Okon-Bassey,
said she did not see when her colleague was set ablaze but that she heard her
screaming when their mistress was beating her shortly before the she saw flame
all over her body when she ran outside their home.
She alleged that they were
maltreated and beaten thoroughly very often and that they had no time to rest
as they work almost throughout the day for their mistress without going to
school, saying that they normally eat twice daily.
Daughter of the alleged culprit,
Ijeoma Akiti, 27, said she was not at home when the incident occurred and that
she could not tell whether her mother poured kerosene on the little girl’s body
and set her ablaze, but that she heard such story at the police station.
She said her mother was first
married to her father and later remarried into the family of Iroakazi and that
her mother’s husband had gone on a business trip to the eastern part of
Nigeria.
At the Bode Thomas Police Station,
police sources alleged that the little girl confessed that her mistress poured
kerosene on her. The police at the station said the woman would be transferred
to the State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID, Panti for further
investigation into the matter, but Ogwu alleged that the police were trying to
shield the woman from prosecution.
In her statement at the police
station, Iroakazi denied that she poured kerosene on the little girl’s body and
set her ablaze.
According to her, she was in the
sitting room when she heard a loud cry and rushed out only to see the girl on
fire and called on people to help put out the fire.
Officials of the Lagos State
Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, WAPA, were at the hospital
and the police station where they spoke with the woman, but she denied the
story.
WAPA officials took Okon-Bassey, the
second girl with them for rehabilitation pending when she would be reconciled
with her real mother.
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