A 12-year-old boy, Michael Agu, from the Imuneze area of Anambra State, resisted going back home owing to the nature of torture he allegedly received from his aunt identified as Mama Sarah in the Victoria Island area of Lagos State.
Agu, was said to have endured the maltreatment for five years before he finally decided to shun the house of the woman who hails from Delta State.
He was taken to the state Ministry of Youths and Social Development, Alausa, Lagos State by a neighbour identified only as Ike.
Agu revealed that he was enrolled in a secondary school only last year since he started to stay with his aunt.
Punch reports that the aunt had been reported at the Bar Beach Police Division sometime last year and had been arrested, but she was freed when she signed an undertaking not to touch the boy again, yet she continued the torture.
Narrating Agu’s ordeal, the neighbour disclosed that Mama Sarah had inflicted bite injuries on Agu as well as cuts with razor blades and knives.
He said: “Mama Sarah is from Delta State, and she has three boys and one girl. But her boys do not stay with her. It is only the girl who stays with her. She constantly unleashed terror on the boy.
“The boy’s father is dead, but his mother stays in the village. The boy was not registered in school until last year. He does not attend school regularly.
“We once took the case to the Bar Beach Police Division, where the woman was detained. She was later released, but she has refused to stop the abuse.”
Corroborating the story, Agu said: “I don’t want to return to her. She cuts my body with blades and she also bites me to punish me.
The Child Protection Unit of the ministry had written to invite Mama Sarah on the alleged torture of the boy.
A copy of the letter signed by the Permanent Secretary, Ogunmolu T.A., showed that the aunt was told to come to the ministry last Wednesday but she failed to show up.
The letter read in part: “I am directed to invite you to a meeting with the Director, Child Development Department, Alausa, Ikeja, at 10am prompt on Wednesday, January 13. The meeting is in respect of the welfare of Michael Agu.”
When contacted, Mama Sarah, however, denied abusing the boy, adding that Agu ran away to be sleeping under the bridge.
She said: “I got the ministry’s letter. I did not beat him. He has run away to be sleeping under the bridge.”
