A10-year-old girl, Victory Oghenovo, is currently bedridden in a hospital in Lagos State after her guardian, Evidence Eseoghene, dehumanised her for taking N100 to buy snacks.
It was learnt that Oghenovo worked as a POS operator at Adeba, Lakowe axis of Lekki for Eseoghene, and she took the money from the POS transactions of the day last Thursday to feed herself.
On getting to the house, the woman initially put pepper in the girl’s eyes after which she placed a hot knife on fire and tortured the little girl with it.
A witness said she got to know about the incident when the girl fainted on Friday at the POS stand and narrated her ordeal the previous night.
The matter was also reported to a non-governmental organisation, Advocate for Children and Vulnerable People’s Network (ACVPN).
A witness said, “The girl collapsed on Friday at her shop where she did POS for her aunty. People gathered there and asked her what the problem was; she said her back was paining her, we opened the back and saw burns, we asked her what happened to her, she said she used N100 to buy puff puff and Zobo when she was hungry on Thursday.
“When she got to the house, the aunt put pepper in her eye, placed a knife on fire and burnt her with it. I immediately took her to the Elemoro police station, I discovered she had other scars; I said what happened, she said some months ago, her aunt called one Alhaja who gave her those scars.
“That same day, the police arrested the Alhaja, but the aunty already fled.”
It was alleged that policemen at the Elemoro station were already compromising the case as the Alhaja was released because the police considered it an old case and because the woman claimed she was pregnant.
