My mother threatened to kill me ...6 -year-old boy

Six-year-old Promise Eboye, should not be alive, at
least going by the four gory looking stab injuries on his
back. The boy survived an attack that would have
killed even an adult had the injuries been sustained in
vital parts of the body.
Promise, a bright and sharp boy lives with his mother
and step-father in Kollington area of Ijaiye, Lagos,
while his biological father lives in Benin, Edo State.
At about 8am on Monday, Promise’s mother, Comfort,
stabbed her son four times, inflicting life-threatening
injuries on the boy’s body.
The broken bottle the woman used on her son tore
into the boy’s flesh inflicting one three-inch injury and
another two-inch injury on the boy’s back. Two other
wounds looked equally horrific but were not as long
and deep as the other two.
Neighbours said if Promise had not run away from his
mother, who held tight to his wrist and stabbed him as
he screamed, he would have been stabbed to death.
What manner of crime could such a young boy have
committed, people who witnessed the scene have
asked.
On Wednesday, our correspondent visited the woman’s
house on Olawoyin Street. The story that Promise, his
neighbours and the hospital workers told could only be
described as incredible.
Promise, who seems to have a remarkable memory,
told Saturday PUNCH that his mother has a “N30 cane”,
which she uses to flog him, even when he had no idea
what he had done wrong. He said she would
sometimes beat him till he could not walk.
“My mother is wicked,” Promise said simply, quietly.
As shocking as that sounded, coming from a six-year-
old, it explained the kind of treatment the boy had
been experiencing in the hands of his mother.
Promise said he had been living with his father in Edo
State since he was one year old. But when he was
five, his mother came to take him from his father’s
house.
The boy said, “I was sweeping the day she came. I did
not know her as my mother. My father then told me
that she was my mother and she had come to take me
to Lagos.
“When we came to Lagos, I started to live with her
and my step-father. But she beat me all the time.”
Asked what happened on Monday to make his mother
stab him, Promise said he tripped and fell.
He said, “When I fell, my mother asked me what
pushed me and why I fell. She was angry and went to
take her N30 cane. When she was beating me too
much and I was screaming, one of our neighbours
came to hold her hand to take the cane away from
her. The woman said I should run away because my
mother would kill me the way she was beating me.
“My mother said ‘I will kill you, I will kill you’. When she
could not find anything else to beat me with, she took
a broken bottle on the ground and started to stab me
on the back.”
Promise was rescued by alarmed residents, who took
him to a private hospital nearby.
But by the time the boy was taken to the hospital,
Comfort had planted another story in the boy’s head.
Pastor Charles Agboola, a pharmacist who founded the
hospital, said the two people who brought Promise in
said the boy fell down and landed on a broken bottle.
When Agboola’s wife, a nurse, asked the boy what
actually happened, Promise told her that he was
watching two people fight when he sustained the
injury.
The nurse told our correspondent, “He told me that
they pushed him and he landed on the broken bottles
but when I informed my husband, he said immediately
that the story could not be true. I also noticed that the
wounds were not consistent with that story.
“It was shocking that the boy’s mother was not
remorseful in any way. It was when she dashed out of
the door under the pretence that she was going to look
for money for the boy’s treatment, that a crowd from
their street, who were coming to the hospital ,grabbed
her and told the true story of what happened.
“When we asked Promise why he lied, he said his
mother had told him what to say when asked how he
sustained the injury.”
Mr. Agboola told Saturday PUNCH that by the time the
boy was about to leave the clinic, he was crying.
“He said he did not want to go back home. We fed
him, gave him any kind of food he wanted because I
could not leave the boy to suffer even though nobody
paid us any money for his treatment. We even prayed
for him. Anytime we brought up the issue of who
would take over his care when he was released from
our hospital, he became very sad,” the pharmacist
said.
Neighbours told our correspondent that Comfort
sometimes punished the boy by smashing his head
against a wall whenever he did something wrong.
Comfort was later handed over to the police at Ijaiye-
Ojokoro Division.
Comfort, who is nursing a toddler, said Promise
stepped on her baby, which was why she became
angry.
When Promise’s biological father was later contacted,
he initially said he wanted nothing to do with the
issue.
“I have other children – I have produced boys and
girls. Whatever she likes, she should do with her son.
When she likes, she would take the boy to a motor
park and send him to me through a driver,” the man
said.
Later when he was told that his ex-wife was in police
custody, he said he would come to Lagos to pick the
boy.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Kenneth
Nwosu, said Comfort would be arraigned as soon as
possible.
He explained that Promise had been treated and
discharged from hospital. As of the time of filing this
report, Promise was being housed at the Lagos State
social welfare home.
Later on Thursday, Comfort was arraigned at an
Ojokoro Magistrate Court, Lagos on charges of assault
occasioning harm and attempted murder.
Promise’s father also came to Lagos on Thursday to
take the boy. The father declined to speak on the
issue when our correspondent tried to ask him some
questions. “I only came to Lagos to pick the boy,” he
said.

Man disappears over third set of twins

Man disappears over wife ’s third set of
twins
 July 3 , 2015
 Written by Miriam Ekene - Okoro , Staff
Reporter
Where is Citizen Emeka Benjamin Uche, a Lagos
factory worker ?
That was the big question yesterday as his wife,
Ruth , 34, from Abia State broke the news of his
disappearance since February.
Uche, 39, fled home when he learnt that his
expectant wife was carrying a set of twins – the
family ’ s third .
Mrs Uche was at the Lagos State Secretariat,
Alausa yesterday with her six children, pleading
for help.
Not many knew what she wanted as she stood
under a tree, close to the Press Centre , carrying
the babies . Her first two sets of twins, much
older , stood close to their mother, and did not in
any way seem intimidated by the sea of cameras
and faces focusing on them.
Mrs . Uche was receptive when our reporter
approached her to narrate her ordeal.
In 2009 when she first conceived , she was
delivered of two girls – Goodness and Godnews.
The second conception , two years later,
produced another two – a boy and a girl , named
John and Joyce.
But when her husband , Emeka , learnt that the
third pregnancy was another set of two he fled
their number 32, Awori Street , Agege home on
the outskirt of Lagos to an undisclosed location
in Ikorodu, Lagos.
The third set of twins arrived last month. They
were named Daniel and Daniella.
Mrs . Uche said she could no longer cope with
widening needs for food, clothes , drugs and
school fees .
Her meagre earnings as a teacher in a private
school in Lagos can no longer meet their needs.
Her story : “ I met my husband in 2002 but we got
married in 2008 . We met in the village at
Umuahia . I don’ t want to leave the children and
run away . This is why I want government to help
us , ” she said .
She recalled that she never wanted the third
pregnancy, but her use of traditional means of
family planning ( counting fertile and infertile
days ) failed her .
“ I was using traditional way of family planning
where I calculate some days before having
intercourse. It was working for me . You can see
my first set of twins is four years old .
“ You know as women , we cannot deny our
husband that thing whenever they request for it .
Whenever I mistakenly take in, he would say that
I was pretending. Sometimes , I would go through
long process to abort the pregnancy. After that,
another one would happen . I would still have to
go through the process again to abort it . When
this one happened he still insisted that I was
pretending until the pregnancy became obvious . ”
“ My Church was responsible for the payment of
the first delivery . The church paid N 120, 000 for
the delivery of the first set of twins. The two
deliveries of the twins have been through
Caesarean Section for which we paid N 120, 000
each . The last twins are through normal
delivery” .
Mrs . Uche explained that her husband , a factory
worker in Iju Road , Agege , has since refused to
pick her calls . She learnt that he stays in
Ikorodu.
“ Since I gave birth to the children, I have tried
calling my husband but he would not pick once
he knows that it is me . I contacted his mother
and other relatives to tell them that he has run
away . They promised that they will call back.
Since then, none of them has called me . It is not
easy for me at all .
“ I know only two of his relations . One of them
lives in Ikorodu ; the other one lives at Ajegunle .
My elder brother, who could have also helped, is
very angry with me for giving birth to another set
of twins. He warned me before not to have any
other child after the two sets of twins, especially
with the kind of husband I have.
“ I cannot put my hands in blood shedding by
committing abortion . I want Nigerians to help me
because there is nobody to pay their school
fees .
“ I went for immunisation some days ago and I
told them my condition and why they have not
been seeing me . It was there that they advised
that I should come to government. Government
should please help my children; no one to help
me with house rent, electricity bill , school fees ,
food and so on, ” Mrs . Uche said .