Seizure boy: Mother goes into hiding as Lagos govt vows to prosecute father

 

The mother of 16-year-old boy Lekan Isiaka, a victim of severe domestic abuse in the hands of his father, has rebuffed every attempt to get her involved in her son’s issue. Saturday PUNCH reported last week that Lekan suffered series of physical abuses in the hand of his father, Monsuru,which led him to have seizures and a dislocated shoulder.

Saturday PUNCH attempted to contact her through the phone number of her new husband, a furniture maker in Ibadan, to inform her about Lekan’s situation but the man, who would not identify himself, has only repeated that “she is out of town.”

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When asked to give her direct line so that authorities handling the boy’s case could contact her, the man refused.

Saturday PUNCH reported on Saturday, June 6, 2015, that concerned neighbours alerted activists from the Esther Child Rights Foundation to Lekan’s case after the boy started having seizures after consistent brutal beating by his auto painter father, Monsuru, in Ijegun area of Lagos.

It was reported that Monsuru was arrested and transferred to the Area M Command Headquarters in Idimu, Lagos.

Saturday PUNCH learnt that since he was granted bail, residents have continued to voice concern about the continued beating by the father.

It was learnt that the day he was released from police custody, Monsuru, threw the boy inside a muddy pool of water on the road, accusing him of getting him arrested.

However, the officials of the Office of the Public Defender of the Lagos State Ministry of Justice visited the Ijegun residence of Monsuru on Thursday having read about the plight of the boy in Saturday PUNCH.

Director of OPD, Mrs. Omotola Rotimi, said the agency had made plans to take Lekan for urgent medical treatment and rehabilitation and vowed that Monsuru would be rearrested and charged to court as soon as possible.

She decried the rising cases of severe physical abuse of children in the state, ascribing the problem to transferred aggression and poverty.

Rotimi said, “Sometimes, when we get cases of child abuse like this, if the case is not severe enough to prosecute the parents for, we sit them down for an hour and hand them a copy of the Child Rights Law, which they have to read compulsorily and digest before they leave our office.

“Most times we see cases of mothers who are victims of domestic abuse in the hands of their husbands transferring the aggression to their children. When their husbands hit them once, they hit their children three times. In other cases, the aggression comes as a result of poverty.”

Director of the Esther Rights Foundation, Esther Ogwu, said reports from residents showed Monsuru is planning to relocate the boy.

“That is something he must not be allowed to do because the life of Lekan would be in danger,” she said.