Woman held for allegedly beating stepson to death in Ogun

• Husband, wife bury child secretly in Lagos

A 30-year-old housewife, Shukurat Olufowobi, resident of the Oshodi-oke area of Ogijo, has been arrested by men of the Ogun State police command for beating her five-year-old stepson, Azeem Olufowobi, to death.

The suspect was arrested at about 12:30 p.m. yesterday following information received from members of the public who told the police at Ogijo division that the deceased boy was beaten with an object on his head, which gave him a skull injury that eventually resulted to his death.

According to the Ogun State police spokesman, Abimbola Oyeyemi, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), the information further revealed that the woman and her husband hurriedly took the body of the victim to Ajah in Lagos State where he was secretly buried.

Upon receiving the information, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) at Ogijo, CSP Suleman Baba Muhammed, quickly mobilized his detectives to the scene where the couple, who have started packing their belongings away from the area, was promptly arrested.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the woman had been maltreating the deceased whose mother had separated from the father due to irreconcilable differences. On a fateful day, the boy was beaten on the head with a heavy object, which resulted in a broken skull that led to his eventual death.

The nurse who gave the victim first aid treatment and informed a couple of her observations was pleaded with by the woman and her friend to lie about the cause of the boy’s death but she refused because it is against the ethics of her profession.

The couple, Ayuba Olufowobi and Shukurat Olufowobi, are currently undergoing interrogation at Ogijo divisional headquarters where they are helping the police in their investigation.

Meantime, the Commissioner of Police, Kenneth Ebrimson, has ordered the immediate transfer of the suspects to the homicide section of the state criminal investigation and intelligence department for further investigation and prosecution.