Father bludgeons daughter to death with nail-studded stick

Juliana Francis
Homicide detectives at the Ojo Alaba Police Station were shocked to their bone marrows by the blatant unremorseful behaviour of a couple whose daughter had just being killed by the father.
The father, 72, was accused by his wife, 40, of beating their 14-year-old daughter to death at the Iba area of Lagos State, over her refusal to attend The Lord’s Chosen Church with him.
The deceased’s mother, Mrs. Comfort Udin said that her husband, John Udin used a stick, fattened with nails, to beat their daughter.  One of the nails perforated her forehead and she later died.
The couple was brought to police station, but rather than reflect on the sudden and tragic death of young Ejiro, the couple started their quarrelling and squabbling again.
They came to the station with three other of their children. These kids watched as their Dad and Mum hurled insults at each other. There was no surprise or shock on their faces. Apparently, they were used to such scenarios and harsh exchange of words between the couple.
It was gathered that this endless quarrel and fighting at the home front, was what caused and led to the eventual death of Ejiro, a Junior Secondary School(II), student.
Daily Newswatch gathered, that the couple, unconcerned that their children used to witness their violent quarrels and fighting, most times used to step outside the apartment to continue the fight, watched by all and sundry.
The domestic violence soon came to a head on October 15, 2013, after John ordered his wife and four children not to attempt to step out of the house and go to church.
Comfort revealed that her first daughter’s journey to the grave started that fateful Tuesday after they told John that they were going to church. The church was however a new church, which Comfort had started attending with the children. She said she did not like John’s church after she attended it once.
Comfort said: “I have never been a member of the Lord’s Chosen Church and after I attended it once with him, I knew I was not going back there. But my husband was not happy that we were not attending the Lord’s Chosen with him. On that Tuesday, we prepared in the evening to go to church, but he would not allow us.”
John had forbidden them from going to church that day. This order had generated a quarrel and John had descended on Ejiro with a whip.  “He started using a whip to flog her. That’s his usual practice. He’s hot tempered. He has a stony heart. Incidentally, it was one of the younger children he wanted to beat, before he turned on Ejiro,” recalled Comfort. “That’s how he used to beat them. He used to beat me too. If he’s doing something and you beg him to stop, he won’t until he’s satisfied.  When he got tired of using the whip, he dropped it and picked the
stick, which had nails and used it to hit Ejiro on her forehead. The nail entered her forehead. He wasted my daughter’s life because he has other children. Nobody can stay with him. His two wives left him. I had already married and entered his home before I got to know a lot of things about him.  Aside from my four children whom I had for him, he has eight other children.”
Rather than take the young girl to hospital, John was alleged to have locked both mother and daughter inside the kitchen, where they spent the night.
By the time the couple took Ejiro to hospital on Sunday, almost five days after the nail-attack, it was too late. She died at the hospital, that same day.
Comfort lamented: “He wasted her life! He said Ejiro used to insult him, but it’s a lie. Ejiro was too scared of him to insult him. It was because he was always hitting her, that a woman took pity on her and told Ejiro to come and stay with her. But after a while, people said Ejiro was his biological daughter. They asked her to beg him and come home even though she hadn’t done anything to offend him. She did and I thought everything was okay. I thought my husband had forgiven his daughter and changed. But he hadn’t changed. He has killed Ejiro for me!”
Comfort continued with her narration: “On the day that incident happened. There was no light. Power Holding Company interrupted power supply. There was only a candle. Thus I didn’t know the wound was a serious one. My husband locked us inside the kitchen and took the other three children with him.  He came the next day to open the kitchen. If there was a way I
could have jumped through the window with my daughter, I would have done it, but the window has burglary proof. Before he allowed us out of the kitchen, it was after a lot of begging. I took Ejiro to a nurse for treatment, but later we took her to hospital, where she died.”
John on the other hand, said his wife was lying. He explained that he has 14 children and had never killed any of them, except for the unfortunate incident with Ejiro. He described the death of Ejiro as tragic and shocking to him, adding that it was not the nail that hit the deceased on the forehead that led to her death.
He said: “The doctor at the hospital, where she died said it was something else that killed Ejiro. He said it was not the nail. But my wife has been going around, saying it was the nail that killed Ejiro. Ejiro was already on drip and was receiving treatment. But before I took her to the hospital, she complained incessantly of feeling pains in the head. Even after we took her to the nurse who first treated her, she still continued to complain about the pains. I now took her to the hospital. I left briefly for home. I was shocked to receive a call from the doctor who told me that my daughter was dead.”
John further explained that he was intending to hit his wife with the stick, but his wife pushed Ejiro into the stick and dogged.
He said that on the fateful Tuesday, his wife and daughter had attacked him, after he told them not to go to church that evening because they had not given him food since morning of that day.
“I had nothing against their church. But I didn’t like the life Ejiro was living. She would leave the house for days and she would come back, without telling anybody where she had been or where she was coming from,” said John.
He continued: “They wanted to leave for church that day, but I said they should not go to any church. Since morning of that day, they had not given me any food and it was already evening. My wife used to insult me. Sometimes she would show me her buttocks in an insulting manner. Ejiro copied her, always insulting me and would show her buttocks to me too.
“On that Tuesday, it was my wife I wanted to beat, not Ejiro. But as I moved on my wife, she and Ejiro ganged up and started fighting me. I picked the stick to hit my wife, but she pushed Ejiro into the stick.”
John also denied locking his wife and Ejiro inside the kitchen for the night. He explained that he was the person who took her to the nurse the following day and finally took her to Hospital on Sunday when the pains Ejiro complained, was not abating.
John is a retired soldier, who became a security guard after his retirement. He lost his security job about two months ago and took to staying at home since then. Comfort on the other hand, does not have any job.