This girl was brutalised by her father

Kafayat Bello, 16, on May 2, got the ruthless beating from the one who Nature assigned to protect her from all harm; her father, Ibrahim Bello, a commercial bus driver.

According to her, he beat her so severely, she couldn't walk after. He plugged a pressing iron and burnt her severally with it.

She said he whipped her till she could not walk and then he plugged their pressing iron and burnt her multiple times, inflicting severe injuries all over her body.

Kafayat, whose case has been taken over by the Office of the Public Defender under the Lagos State Ministry of Justice, explained that on the day of the incident, she was given the duty of attending to a client who needed manicure and pedicure at her mom’s beauty salon.

“When I finished attending to the customer, I left the shop to play with some of my friends. When I got back, my mother asked where I was and told me she would report me to my father. When I got home, my mother told my father what I did, he started to beat me very hard and he then went off to plug a pressing iron, which he used to burn me all over my body,” she said.

When the brutal beating of the daughter became unbearable for Kafayat’s mother who stood by as her husband punished their daughter, she rushed out to call neighbours for help, who later came in to restrain him.

OPD officials who handled the case said Ibrahim locked up his daughter after the incident and warned her not to go out until the injuries healed so that no one would know what happened.

“But when her classmates came looking for her from school they told her she had missed some tests. In order not to miss more tests, she rushed to school on Thursday, two days after she sustained the injuries. When she got to school, that was when we discovered the extensive injuries,” a school official who reported the case said.

As soon as the case was reported, her dad was arrested and OPD took over the case. According to reports, there were at least 15 visible bruises on Kafayat’s where she sustained severe injuries from her face down to her thighs.

Omotola Rotimi, The Director of OPD, said her office would continue to monitor the case to ensure that Ibrahim was diligently prosecuted.

She said, “The case of the girl that was burnt with iron was so severe that she could have lost her life in the process. We also have the father in custody and would ensure that he is prosecuted diligently for the severe assault on the girl.

“While he kept the girl at home, he invited an auxiliary nurse to treat her injuries but the nurse did a very shoddy job. The injuries could have deteriorated and caused further damage to the girl’s body if not because we were notified on time. We had to ensure the girl receive adequate treatment first.”