A combination of shock and disbelief, like a low,
dark cloud, has enveloped the neighbourhood where 34-year-old Solomon
(surname withheld) lives in the Tasha Gwagwa area of the Federal Capital
Territory, Abuja, with his family.
Almost in the same measure, a gentle wind of sympathy continues to
blow around the family as it bears its grief over the unintentional
killing of their 11-year-old son, by Solomon, in a bid to correct him
for a major error.
The Commissioner of Police, Mr. Wilson Inalegwu who confirmed the unfortunate incident to Sunday Sun described
it as pathetic and a very troubling demonstration of the decay that has
crept into the Nigerian society, and which calls for parents to keep
close tabs on the kind of visual materials their children are exposed to
at home through movies
At the State Criminal Investigation Department of the Federal Capital
Territory Police Command, where he is being held, Solomon has been
bemoaning his action and cursing the evil spirit that led his late son
into the grievous error of committing incest with his eight-year-old
sister (name withheld).
As he recounted to Sunday Sun reporter in Abuja, Solomon
said that he came home one day in April 2016 and saw his young son
engaged in sexual act with his younger sister right in his bedroom.
“Victor was my son, an 11-year-old boy. I had been receiving bad
reports about him. The height of it was that he started sleeping with
his sister, who is eight-years-old. I had been receiving several reports
about the ugly incident. Around 4.00 pm, I came back from work and met
Victor sleeping with his sister in my bedroom. The stepmother was not at
home,” Solomon said.
Overcome by anger, he rushed out again, picked up a stick and beat
him severely. But then the devil took over, twisted the situation to the
point that the little boy went into convulsion and then lost
consciousness the next day. Benevolent neighbours of the family rushed
him to Gwarinpa General Hospital, where he died soon after he got to the
hospital.
The father, who earlier in the day had gone out was summoned to the
hospital by phone. When he got to the hospital and introduced himself,
the doctor informed him that his son had died.
The doctor detained him on pretext and promptly called the Gwarinpa
police station, which sent policemen and Solomon was arrested.
According to Inalegwu, the doctor told the police that the boy died
as a result of internal injuries he sustained in the course of being
beaten by his father.
Visibly weighed down by the sad outcome of the seeming punishment he
administered on the late boy, the bereaved father who hails from
Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area of Enugu State, said: “ I wept when
the doctor told me that my son had died. I didn’t have the intention to
kill my son. I was trying to correct him because of the immoral act he
committed. How can I beat my son to death? I couldn’t believe what I
saw. I only acted in anger; I never wanted to kill my son.”
When Sunday Sun visited Tasha Gwagwa community, a neighbour of the bereaved father, Ali Ahmed told Sunday Sun reporter:
“We heard when the father was beating the child. He beat him to correct
him for what he did. The son was very stubborn. The father never had
intention to kill his son.
He spoke further: “What the doctor did that night in the hospital
was bad. How could he call the police to arrest the father of the dead
boy? We were expecting the doctor to tell the father how to carry the
corpse of his son. It is a lesson to every parent.” Another neighbour,
John Gabriel, however, had a contrary view: “What the doctor did was
right. The doctor thought that the father would run away upon hearing
that his child had died. The parents of the boy are good people. It was
me that even called the father on the phone to meet us at the hospital.”
Meanwhile the FCT Commissioner of Police has said the matter would be charged to court.