A disturbing case of child abuse has been uncovered in Lagos, where a woman identified as Chinwendu Onyeneho reportedly used a hot electric iron to inflict severe burns on her seven-year-old daughter for allegedly stealing meat from the cooking pot.
The incident occurred Thursday night at No. 11 Oshimyemi Street, Ogba, Lagos, and has since triggered public outrage and intervention from a human rights group and the Nigeria Police Force.
According to a neighbour who spoke with SaharaReporters, the abuse followed a domestic chore in which the child was asked by her mother to serve meat to her younger brother.
“The incident happened yesterday (Thursday) night. The woman asked the daughter to go and put meat for her younger brother, the mother realised that she had eaten part of it. She saw her when she was doing it. And she plugged iron, then give her all those marks on her body,” the neighbour said.
The witness, shocked by the level of violence meted out to the child, said she confronted the mother immediately after the incident.
“So when I went to meet her, I said this is too much; why will she beat a child like this? And the mother said it was none of my business. That I should do my worst. And I was now like, you have to burn a child like this for eating meat from the pot? That is unfair,” the neighbour said.
SaharaReporters learned that the Take-It-Back Movement, a prominent human rights group, quickly intervened by alerting the Area G Command of the Nigeria Police in Lagos. The police then requested the source of the information to come forward and make a formal complaint.
When contacted on Friday morning, the Area G Commander, ACP Faniyi Abayomi, confirmed that the police were aware of the case and that appropriate steps were already being taken.
“We have been briefed and the neighbour is currently here making a formal complaint. The appropriate department handling juvenile matters are currently handling the case,” he told SaharaReporters.
All attempts by SaharaReporters to reach the accused woman, Chinwendu Onyeneho, for her side of the story were unsuccessful. Repeated calls to her phone on Friday morning went unanswered.
The condition of the child, including the extent of her injuries, remains unclear at the time of filing this report.
However, photos and videos obtained by SaharaReporters reveal visible burn marks across the girl’s arms and back.
