A combination of shock and disbelief, like a low, dark
cloud, has enveloped the neighbourhood where 34-year-old Solomon (surname
withheld) who lives in the Tasha Gwagwa area of the Federal Capital Territory,
Abuja, unintentionally beat their 11-year-old son to death for committing
incest with his eight-year-old sister.
The Commissioner of
Police, Mr. Wilson Inalegwu who confirmed the unfortunate incident to Sunday
Sun described it as pathetic and a very troubling demonstration of the
decay that has crept into the Nigerian society, and which calls for parents to
keep close tabs on the kind of visual materials their children are exposed to
at home through movies
At the State Criminal
Investigation Department of the Federal Capital Territory Police Command, where
he is being held, Solomon has been bemoaning his action and cursing the evil
spirit that led his late son into the grievous error of committing incest with
his younger sister.
As he recounted to Sunday
Sun reporter in Abuja, Solomon said that he came home one day in
April 2016 and saw his young son engaged in sexual act with his younger sister
right in his bedroom.
“Victor was my son, an
11-year-old boy. I had been receiving bad reports about him. The height of it
was that he started sleeping with his sister, who is eight-years-old. I had
been receiving several reports about the ugly incident. Around 4.00 pm, I came
back from work and met Victor sleeping with his sister in my bedroom. The
stepmother was not at home,” Solomon said.
Overcome by anger, he
rushed out again, picked up a stick and beat him severely. But then the devil
took over, twisted the situation to the point that the little boy went into
convulsion and then lost consciousness the next day. Benevolent neighbours of
the family rushed him to Gwarinpa General Hospital, where he died soon after he
got to the hospital.
The father, who
earlier in the day had gone out was summoned to the hospital by phone. When he
got to the hospital and introduced himself, the doctor informed him that his
son had died.
The doctor detained
him on pretext and promptly called the Gwarinpa police station, which sent
policemen and Solomon was arrested.
According to Inalegwu,
the doctor told the police that the boy died as a result of internal injuries
he sustained in the course of being beaten by his father.
Visibly weighed down
by the sad outcome of the seeming punishment he administered on the late boy,
the bereaved father who hails from Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area of
Enugu State, said: “ I wept when the doctor told me that my son had died. I
didn’t have the intention to kill my son. I was trying to correct him because
of the immoral act he committed. How can I beat my son to death? I couldn’t
believe what I saw. I only acted in anger; I never wanted to kill my son.”
When Sunday
Sun visited Tasha Gwagwa community, a neighbour of the bereaved
father, Ali Ahmed told Sunday Sun reporter: “We heard when
the father was beating the child. He beat him to correct him for what he did.
The son was very stubborn. The father never had intention to kill his son.
He spoke further:
“What the doctor did that night in the hospital was bad. How could he call the
police to arrest the father of the dead boy? We were expecting the doctor to
tell the father how to carry the corpse of his son. It is a lesson to every
parent.” Another neighbour, John Gabriel, however, had a contrary view: “What
the doctor did was right. The doctor thought that the father would run away
upon hearing that his child had died. The parents of the boy are good people.
It was me that even called the father on the phone to meet us at the hospital.”
Meanwhile the FCT Commissioner
of Police has said the matter would be charged to court.







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