TEENAGE HOUSE MAID RECOUNTS ORDEAL AT THE HANDS OF EMPLOYERS' RELATIVES

A 16-year-old girl, Kemi Leole, reportedly brought from Cotonou, Benin Republic, by an undisclosed agent in January, to Nigeria, to work as a house help, has lamented torture and how she attempted suicide on different occasions.

Leole, who has been confined to the walls of a hospital for a couple days was said to have been tortured by a hot pressing iron used by her employer, Alhaja Fatima Williams.

DAILY POST gathered that policemen attached to the Ikeja Division received reports from some concerned neighbours at 8, Soji Adefegba street, off Allen Avenue, Ikeja, that the victim’s 50-year-old employer, Fatima, had beaten and ordered her relative to burn her with pressing iron.

The painful act, however, prompted the victim to attempt suicide but was rescued by neighbours who rushed her to a hospital.

Speaking before newsmen while being paraded at the Lagos State Police headquarters, Ikeja, on Monday, Leole, who was brought directly from the hospital where she had been receiving treatment since Saturday, narrated her seven-month experience in the hands of her boss.

The traumatized teenager trembled into the conference hall with a drip syringe still attached to one of her wrists, saying: “Since I was brought from my country, I was not enrolled into any school. I ate very late at night.

“On that particular day, while I was doing my chores, she asked me to accompany her to the market. When we returned, I attempted to eat, but she said I should go and wash her clothes, wash the plates, sweep the compound, wash the gutter, mop the floor, clean the louvres and doors.

“I was on the chores till 11p.m,” Leole sobbed, adding that when her ‘madam’ came back, ‘she started quarreling that I did not clean the compound. She ordered Brother Waliu, who was pressing his clothes to beat me up.’

“He came with a wire and beat me and at the same time placed the hot iron on parts of my body. When I called on mummy to come to my rescue, she instructed Brother Waliu to beat me harder,” Leole added.

But on her part, the suspect claimed she never laid a finger on Leole.

She, however, admitted to have instructed her relative, Waliu, to beat her.

The mother of two said, “But in the process, she tore his clothes and ran to the kitchen to collect an insecticide, threatening to take it if Waliu touched her. I did not beat her.”

Yusuf Waliu, who burnt Kemi with pressing iron, said he did it in error.

“It was mummy that told me to beat her. I told her to kneel down, she said she won’t, instead, she went to the kitchen, took an insecticide and attempted to swallow it. I told mummy to bring palm oil and give her a spoonful to neutralize the effect.

“I didn’t deliberately burn her with the iron; I only wanted to scare her with it. It was a mistake, besides, I only used it on her once and beat her with the string,”