Woman and Her Neighbour Arrested for Assaulting her 16-year-old Housemaid with Hot Iron

The Lagos State, Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni on Monday paraded a woman Fatima Williams, and her neighbour, Waliu Yusuf, 25, for allegedly brutalising her 16-year-old housemaid, identified only as Kemi, with hot iron and electric cables.

According to PUNCH, the incident took place at Fatima’s apartment on Soji Adepegba Close, Allen Avenue, Ikeja.

It was reported that Kemi, who was brought from Cotonou, Benin Republic had been living with Williams, popularly called Alhaja, since January 2016 as a  housemaid.

The report stated that the victim was brutalised because she did not sweep the compound last Thursday.

A concerned resident called the police, who arrested the suspects the next day (Friday).

A police source told our correspondent that the teenager had been admitted to the Police Cottage Hospital, Ikeja.

Kemi, narrating the incident to PUNCH said:

On that day, Alhaja instructed me to sweep the compound. She also asked me to clean the windows and wash some clothes.

I started with the washing and she went out. When she returned, she was angry that I had not swept the compound. She called the man to beat me up.

Fatima said that she called Waliu to beat Kemi up on the day of the incident after she “got her angry”

The girl’s brother brought her to me on January 10, 2016. She usually stole things from the house. I kept reporting her to her brother and even asked him to come to pick her, but he refused; I got tired of the girl.

She continued her rudeness and messed up the whole house. She also urinated on the bed. During all this trouble, my blood pressure got high. I had to use a BP machine in the house. I called and spoke to her like a child, but she would not listen. I usually gave her the food I ate. I gave her brother N40,000 in January.

When she got me angry on that day, I was tired of beating her and I called Waliu (Yusuf). He was using an iron. As he beat her, she held his clothes and the iron injured her.

Waliu, giving his own account of what happened said he had wanted to scare the victim with the iron when it injured her.

“The girl went into the kitchen and brought an insecticide, threatening to kill herself. I then tried to take the substance away from her. She began to struggle with me. I started flogging her and she held on to my clothes.

Meanwhile, I was ironing some clothes that time. I used the iron to scare her to leave my clothes. That was how the iron fell on her. I only wanted to scare her away,” he said.

Owoseni said that the suspects would be charged to court after investigations were complete. “This is a case of child trafficking, child labour and child abuse as well as assault occasioning harm. The suspects will be arraigned in a court of law,” he said.

Photo Credit: PUNCH