Mama Sarah, a trader and a cleaner with Nigerian Naval Dockyard, Lagos, has been accused of maltreating a boy in her custody, Michael Maduagu, 12, a primary one pupil at Bonny Camp Primary School, who was
brought from Anambra State when he was barely 5.
Mama Sarah allegedly beat up Michael, last Sunday, placed a hot iron on his leg and made incisions on his body with a blade. Her fellow traders at Bar Beach Bus Stop, Victoria Island, yesterday accused her of inhuman treatment of Michael, urging government to prosecute her.
Musbau Agbodemu, Executive Director of Rural and Urban Development Initiative, said the matter was first reported to him on Tuesday, adding that the Ministry of Woman Affairs and Poverty Alleviation officials have intervened in the matter and Michael is now in their custody.
A resident of Mama Sarah’s street, Destiny Francis, said: “3 of her own children left her when her trouble was too much. It is just her last born that lives with her and that one is something else. She sometimes beat her mother. I want justice to prevail.”