Officers of Ondo State Police Command have arrested a
28-year-old woman, Mary Matthew, for allegedly caging a four-year-old foster
daughter in a kiosk inside the bush for over five months in Imafon village in
the Akure-South area of Ondo State.
Mary said she ‘quarantined’ the victim, identified as
Precious Michael, when she suspected that she had witchcraft and was infected
with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, which reportedly killed her mother last
year.
The suspect, who was arrested in June, was said to be a
relative of the late Precious’ mother. She reportedly brought the girl to
Imafon in December 2015, after her mother died.
Parading the suspect at the headquarters of the command in
Akure on Thursday, the state Commissioner of Police, Mrs. Hilda Harrison, said
the suspect was arrested following a tip-off.
She said, "Mary and her husband, who alleged that the girl
was possessed, decided to lock her outside the house. On receipt of the
information, the personnel attached to the Juvenile Welfare Centre of the
police command visited the scene and met the girl in the cage as reported.
"She (Precious) was immediately rescued and taken to the
police clinic for medical attention, while the suspects are under interrogation
and will soon be charged to court."
Harrison explained that the victim would be taken to the
welfare home of the Ondo State Ministry of Woman Affairs and Social Welfare.
Mrs. Olayemi Ojumu (ASP), who led the team that rescued the
victim, The Punch that Precious
tested negative to HIV.
She said, "When we got to the village, we saw the girl with
a swollen body. She was holding a loaf of bread. She had defecated on her body
inside the cage where she was kept in the bush. They didn’t allow her to come
out to live with them. They gave her food and water inside the cage.
"When we asked Mary about the condition of the girl, she
told us that Precious’ mother died of HIV in Enugu State and she discovered
that she (Precious) had been infected with HIV by her deceased mother. She said
she did not want Precious to infect her own children and that was why she kept
her in the cage."
The suspect, who admitted to have committed the offence,
said she thought Precious was HIV positive and that was why she isolated her to
avoid the spread of the virus in the village.
Mary, a farmer and an indigene of Enugu State, said she
confined the victim to a corner in her shop, where she put her in the morning
and released her in the evening whenever she came back from the farm.
She explained that she confined the victim to the shop
because she noticed that the minor had swollen legs, a symptom which killed her
mother.
"I would have taken her to the hospital for treatment but I
had no money to pay for the medical bills," the suspect added.
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