- Father admits mistakenly beating a 2-month-old baby to death
BY SEGUN ADEBAYO – The Osun State Government has in its custody a 43-year-old suspect, identified as Sanjo, arrested for killing his two-month-old baby.
According to the State Commissioner for Women, Children and Social Affairs, Barrister Olubukola Olaboopo, the suspect had been involved in killing the children given birth to by his wife of 13 years.
A statement issued by the Ministry’s Information Officer, Bolarinwa Adereti, said the suspect, who lived in the Alekunwodo area of the state capital, however, claimed that he beat the baby to death unintentionally.
The Commissioner said the suspect was arrested upon a tip-off from a neighbour in the community, adding that government would not allow such dastard abuse of children and women from anyone.
Assuring that the suspect would face full consequences of his action, Barrister Olaboopo warned others to desist from wanton abuse of children and women as the government would not condone such savagery and inhumane actions from anyone or group.
The statement quoted Sanjo as saying; “I got married to my wife in 2008 and God blessed us with five children. It was the third child that I beat, unintentionally, to death. My wife left the child with me while she was going out and the baby started crying.
“I did all I could to placate her but she kept crying. Something just came upon me and I beat the two-month-old baby to death. I and my wife buried the child on our farmland.”
The statement further said Sanjo’s wife also confessed that they decided to kill two of their babies due to poverty and quoted her as admitting thus; “I gave birth to 5 babies out of which 4 are dead and the 5th being the newly born. We decided to kill two of the babies due to poverty while we dumped the third one around the Technical area in Osogbo.
“I have been suffering a lot, my husband subjects me to hard labour on his farm. He is fond of beating me and he ties me down whenever he wants to have sex with me.
“He even coerces me to find him sex partners on several occasions. I have also had many abortions for him, including an attempt to abort the fifth child”, she said.
