Four year old slaughtered by suspected ritualists in Lagos

  *Herbalist, mistress dump new born baby in latrine in Katsina A four-year-old girl identified as Farida Sulaiman was on Tuesday slaughtered by suspected ritualists in a shrine at No. 28 Ogbe Close in the Iwaya area of Yaba. Our correspondent gathered that the mother of the toddler, Mrs. Suliaman, had left Farida with her other siblings at home to quickly buy some household items from the market at about 9 am on the sad day. However, when she returned from the market, she couldn’t find Farida. When she asked her other siblings who are both eleven and nine year old respectively, they said they hadn’t seen her for some hours. Mrs. Suliamon stated that late Farida was not found until about 8pm when her lifeless body was found behind their apartment close to an Ogun shrine. The Lagos state Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, who confirmed the murder of the toddler said 10 persons, including the parents of the child, have been arrested and are been questioned by the police. He said, “Early this morning at about mid-night today, the divisional police officer in Sabo had alerted me that one Mr. Taiwo Suliaman and his wife came to the police station with the dead body of the four year old child and upon been questioned, Mr. and Mrs. Suliaman had asserted that the four year old child had left with two of her other siblings to a mosque to pray at about 1pm on Tuesday and from that 1pm up till around 9 pm, they didn’t see the four year old child. “It was however in the cause of the search that they saw the child just behind the window by a shrine where they worship Ogun and her throat had been slashed. We have recovered the corpse and we have seen the murder knife, the tool with which that child was killed. At the moment, ten persons have been taken into custody for interrogation, we are not saying categorically that they killed the child, but those ten persons, including the parent of the child are been questioned at the moment. “With the initial interrogation that was carried out, there is an element of conspiracy in the matter. We will continue to update you with regards to the investigation, we have also deployed security personnel into that area, it’s a densely populated area which is more like a slum just by the UNILAG back gate.” He further revealed that the trend is one that getting anew in the state. He therefore called on all Lagosian to be security conscious and that when they see unusual things; they should alert the police or any other security agency. In a related development, the Police in Katsina have apprehended a herbalist, Sule Abubakar for strangulating and throwing in the latrine a new born child. Confirming the development, the state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Gambo Isah said the incident happened in Gyaza village, in Kafur local government area of the state. According to him, the incident occurred when the mother of the new born baby, Fatima Garba had a dispute with her husband and was sent out of their matrimonial home. Isah added that, Fatima had consulted the herbalist who assured her that her husband would come back to her which eventually came true. He said, “Seeing that the words of the herbalist she mistook for a godly man came to reality, Fatima started frequenting the herbalist who now took advantage of her and had sex with her resulting to her pregnancy”. However, noticing that she was already pregnant before returning to her husband’s house, her other house wives turned her into a topic of discussion since it is an abomination for a married woman to be carrying another man’s baby. “Fatima after giving birth and out of shame went to inform the herbalist who in the process strangulated the baby and threw the body in the latrine”. DSP Isah said the command’s officers and men got wind of the information went to the house where it dog into the latrine to recover the lifeless body of the baby. He however, said the herbalist and his concubine, Fatima Garba are presently in custody of the police as investigation is still ongoing on the matter. Also, the police said it has succeeded in rescuing alive a new born baby girl abandoned by her mother, one Hassana Tanimu, 16 years old of Jabiri area of Funtua local government. Joy Anyim and Segun Olaniyan, Katsina