Child Abuse: Woman Accuses 8-Year Old Nephew Of Witchcraft, Flogs, Ties Him In A Room

A 45 year old mother of two and an indigene of Imo State, Charity Iyonetu is currently been held by the Lagos Police command for allegedly flogging her 8 year old nephew, Chinonye Iyonetu with horse whip and inflicting body injuries on him for cutting his slippers.
Charity who runs a restaurant in the Seme Area of Lagos had alleged that the boy was a wizard and destroyed things at will. She had tied the boy with a rope and locked him up in her one room apartment.
Preliminary investigation revealed that Charity had brought the Survivor to Lagos in 2016 after his mother in the village abandoned him.
Parading the suspect on Tuesday at the Lagos State Police Command headquarters in Ikeja, the Commissioner of Police, CP Imohimi Edgal defined the case as man's inhumanity to man.
Edgal disclosed that one Peter Aluku who heard Chinonye crying and shouting for help reported the case to the police.

He said, "the suspect always maltreat the boy, accusing him of being a wizard. The ordeal of the little boy came to the fore when on May 9th, 2018, at about 9 am, the suspect use horsewhip a.k.a Koboko to flog the child, inflicting injuries all over his body. She thereafter locked him in her one room apartment with his two hands tied behind his back and left to her shop.

"Chinonye was crying and shouting for help which made one Peter Aluku to call the Police. When the Police team arrived, they broke the door of the house and rescued the child."

On why she flogged and tied the boy in a room, charity claimed an evil spirit, which made him act strangely, possessed the boy.
She said Chinonye who is her brother’s son was fond of tearing his cloths, books and other belonging with a razor blade.

"He had been in the village for long and was not going to school. So when I travelled, I asked my brother why his son wasn't going to school. He said the boy was possessed with evil spirit. My brother even said the boy was responsible for all his misfortune. 

I decided to take the boy with me to Lagos. When we got to Lagos, I registered him in a government school. His going to school was one day one trouble. 

" It was either he had beaten up someone or he had injured a student. He was also in the habit of running away from school. "I then took him to a private school, but things still didn't change. He was always tearing his exercise books and textbooks, sometimes; he would even carry his box of clothes and tear into pieces with a razor blade. 

" In search of a solution, I had even taken him to different churches including a white garment church where I was even asked to buy a white pieces of cloth and keep him there for prayers. But for fear of him not running away, I had to object to his staying in the church. 

"On the day I was arrested, Chinonye had taken his clothes out and was tearing them into pieces with razor blade. I got angry and had to flog him mercilessly with a whip (koboko). I had to lock him in a room when I was going to the market to avoid his usual attitude of running from the house."

chinonye also spoke to our Correspondent saying he was flogged for cutting his slippers and that his aunty was in the habit of flogging and inflicting injury on him at the slightest provocation.

He said, "It was my aunty that brought me to Lagos. I wasn't going to school in the village but when I got to Lagos, she enrolled me in school. She was always beating me and the day the police came to the house, she had beaten me because my slippers got cut.
"She alleged I had used a razor blade to cut it. I told her it wasn't true. So she picked a koboko and beat me up. She tried me in a room, locked the door and left me there without food."

The Commissioner of Police stated further that the suspect would be charged to the Special and Sexual Offences Court as soon as investigation is concluded.