Military student, friends’ torture boy with hot iron over alleged phone theft

 

Juliana Francis

 Members of the Advocates for Children and Vulnerable Persons Network (ACVPN) have urged the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Ministry of Justice, to do everything humanly possible to arrest a young lady and her friends for allegedly brutalising an 11-year-old house boy with hot iron at the Mushin area of the state.

The boy, identified as Tobi, was allegedly to have been tortured with hot iron by her mistress’s daughter identified as Funmi, and her friends, all described as, “military students.”

The torture was an attempt to make Tobi confess to stealing an android phone that went missing in the house.

When members of ACVPN, led by Comrade Ebenezer Omajalile, angrily stormed Mushin yesterday, they discovered that the boy had been spirited out of the community, to his family members in Ikorodu.

The advocates met Funmi, but she pretended that it was her mom that dealt with Tobi, stressing that the boy was now hale and healthy.

Advocates believed that the survivor was moved because his torturers were trying to conceal the physical abuse. However, a video and pictures, which had flooded social media, showed the child with peeled skin, writhing in pains.

A concerned Nigerian, who brought the issue to the attention of the ACVPN, said: “This happened on Friday. Funmi is a military student. She carried out the torture with her colleagues. She brought her friends’ home and then tied the boy, and used hot iron on him. The boy was accused of stealing an android phone, but he repeatedly denied it. He said he didn’t steal any phone, let alone to have even seen it. But they didn’t believe him. According to sympathisers, when the number of the phone was dialled, it rang, but it was not with the boy. After hurting the boy, he was then released to his mother. The boy was taken to General Hospital Mushin, but quickly discharged on Sunday for reasons yet unknown.”