A mother-of-two, Tina Idoroyen, has been accused of scalding her 5-year-old daughter’s hand with boiling water after she stole her fish.
It was gathered that the woman, a food vendor, prepared 19 pieces of fish for her business and went out, but found only one piece of fish when she returned.
On discovering that her little girl ate the fish, she punished her by dipping her hands in hot water, The Guardian reports.
Mr. James Ibor, of Basic Rights Counsel Initiative (BRCI), the non-governmental organization (NGO) in charge of the child’s case, alleged that the mother admitted that the little girl had not eaten before stealing the fish.
“The mother alleged that her five-year-old daughter stole her fish, so she dipped her hands in a very hot water, that was how she reacted to the alleged stealing.” He said.
“Meanwhile, she admitted that when it happened, the child had not eaten, which means she must have been hungry. The woman has nothing, the father of the child abandoned them two years ago and she still has another eight-year-old daughter. They can barely feed and she is owing house rent, so if we had not intervened with treatment immediately, that child’s burns would have been badly infected.” He added.
Mr Ibor said the matter has not been reported to the police because the child needs the support and care of her mother while in the hospital receiving treatment.
Ibor, however, assured that the perpetrator will soon be handed over to the police for prosecution, and explained that the child has been moved from a private hospital to the General Hospital in Calabar, where a specialist is handling her treatment.
