A housewife identified as Shukurat Olufowobi residing at Oshodi Oke area of Ogijo, Sagamu, has been arrested by the police in Ogun State for beating her stepson, Azeem Olufowobi, to death.
Mrs Olufowobi’s husband, Ayuba, was also arrested.
Mrs Olufowobi was said to have inflicted grave injuries to the skull of the five-year-old stepson, which resulted in his death and subsequent secret burial in Ajah, Lagos, with the help of her husband.
The suspect was arrested on Sunday by a team of police detectives led by the Divisional Police Officer for Ogijo Division, Suleman Muhammed, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) which dashed to the scene where the couple were already packing their belongings in a bid to flee the area.
The suspect’s arrest followed information received by the police at Ogijo Division from the public that the deceased boy was struck on the head with an object during the beating and eventually died of skull injury inflicted on him.
Police spokesperson, Abimbola Oyeyemi, who disclosed this in a release, said preliminary investigation revealed that the 30-year-old woman was always maltreating the boy, whose mother had been separated from his father.
Abimbola, a Deputy Superintendent of Police,(DSP) said the boy was beaten to death, struck on the head with a heavy object which left him with a broken skull and resulted in his eventual death.
According to the Police Spokesman, the suspect also attempted to persuade the nurse who gave the victim first aid treatment, to lie about the cause of the boy’s death but declined based on ethical ground, to heed to the couples’ request to give false information about the boy’s case.
Abimbola noted that the couple, Ayuba Olufowobi and Shukurat Olufowobi, is now undergoing interrogation at the Ogijo Divisional Police Headquarters while the Commissioner of Police Kenneth Ebrimson had given directive for the transfer of the suspects to the homicide section of the state criminal investigation and intelligence department for further investigation and prosecution.
