The suspect allegedly caged her four-year-old foster daughter inside the
bush for over five months at Imafon Village in Akure South Local
Government Area of Ondo State.
Mary said she ‘quarantined’ the young girl identified as Precious
Michael when she suspected that the girl was possessed with witchcraft
and also suspected that the four-year-old girl must have been inflicted
by Human Immunodeficiency Virus, which reportedly killed her deceased
mother last year .
The suspect was said to be a relative of the girl’s late mother and
brought the little girl to Imafon in December 2015 after the death of
her mother.
Parading the suspect at the headquarters of the command in Akure on
Thursday the state Commissioner of Police, Mrs. Hilda Harrison, said the
suspect was arrested following a tip off.
While Mary was paraded her husband was not but the police boss said both of them were in their custody.
The commissioner said, “Mary Mathew and her husband who alleged that the
girl was possessed and thus decided to lock her outside the house. On
receipt of the information, personnel attached to Juvenile Welfare
Center of the police command visited the scene and met the girl in the
cage as reported. “She (the girl) was immediately rescued and taken to
police clinic for medical attention while the suspects are under
interrogation and will soon be charged to court “
Harrison further explained the victim would be taken to the state
welfare home of the Ondo State Ministry of Woman Affairs and Social
Welfare .
Also speaking, the police officer at the JWC of the command, Mrs.
Olayemi Ojumu (ASP), who led the team that rescued the girl, told punch
that Precious had tested negative for HIV.
Mary, a farmer and indigene of Enugu State said she only confined the victim to a corner in her shop.
She said she confined the four-year-old there in the morning and released in the evening whenever she came back from the farm.