WICKEDNESS!

Lagos State Police arrest two people for torturing a 16-year-old housemaid with hot iron . . Alhaja Fatima Williams, and her neighbour, Waliu Yusuf, have been arrested for allegedly brutalising Kemi – brought from Cotonou, Benin Republic – with a hot iron and electric cables, Punchng reports. . . Reportedly, Kemi had been living with Williams since January 2016. Kemi, who has now been admitted to the Police Cottage Hospital, Ikeja, said, “On that day, Alhaja instructed me to sweep the compound. She also asked me to clean the windows and wash some clothes. . . I started with the washing and she went out. When she returned, she was angry that I had not swept the compound. She called the man to beat me up.” On her part, Alhaja, a mother-of-four who hails from Kwara State, said: “She usually stole things from the house. . . I kept reporting her to her brother and even asked him to come to pick her, but he refused; I got tired of the girl. She continued her rudeness and messed up the whole house. She also urinated on the bed. During all this trouble, my blood pressure got high. . . I had to use a BP machine in the house. I called and spoke to her like a child, but she would not listen. When she got me angry on that day, I was tired of beating her and I called Waliu (Yusuf). He was using an iron. As he beat her, she held his clothes and the iron injured her.” . . Recounting what happened, Yusuf said: “The girl went into the kitchen and brought an insecticide, threatening to kill herself. I then tried to take the substance away from her. She began to struggle with me. I started flogging her and she held on to my clothes. . . Meanwhile, I was ironing some clothes that time. I used the iron to scare her to leave my clothes. That was how the iron fell on her. I only wanted to scare her away.” The state Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, who called it a case of child trafficking, child labour and child abuse as well as assault occasioning harm, said the duo would be charged to court at the end of investigation.