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Mother from hell: Kills son over N50
In fact, shocked and angry residents, including concerned citizens are still trying to unravel the reason for the murder of a defenceless underaged by a woman who is supposed to love, pamper and protect him.
Sunday Express reliably gathered that for allegedly stealing N50, to buy Gala after two days of starvation, the life of Moses Bankole Seubow, 15, was tragically cut short by his foster mother, Olayemi Timothy, who ferociously beat him with knife and cudgel until he gave up the ghost.
The killing, described by many as barbaric happened on August 5, 2012, at No. 8 Amosu Street, Ijegun, Lagos.
Seubow’s agonizing and painful journey to the great beyond started on Saturday, August 4, when he was said to have misplaced N1000 note given to him for an errand. The development, according to sources irked Olayemi, who threatened fire and brimstone. At the end, she resolved to starve the JSS I lad for days.
By the second day, the boy, Sunday Express learnt, had become a shadow of himself, having stayed all through Saturday till Sunday without food and water. Unable to bear it any longer, he sneaked out of the house to buy Gala, with only N50.
More trouble loomed when the Oyo State-born Seubow’s guardian learnt of the Gala, as she became more furious, and accused him of stealing her N50 to buy Gala. In her usual cruel manner, she grabbed the closest object, which turned out to be a kitchen knife and descended on the poor boy.
Not even the boy’s hot tears and pleas could appease the woman he called ‘my mother’.Violently, she held him tight, beating him hard with the knife and cudgels, until he passed out amid cries of help.
The beating continued unabated till the helpless lad passed out.
By the time the hard-hearted mother realised that the deceased had lost consciousness, it was too late to redeem the situation. She made effort to run away but was promptly apprehended by angry neighbours.
“I heard the noise of the boy when Iya Anu (Olayemi) was battering him but it was not a new thing. After a while, the boy’s screaming stopped. However, when Timothy (her husband) came back from the church, I saw him carrying the boy in his arms and rushing to the hospital. But the boy was confirmed dead on arrival at the private hospital he took him to. He brought him back home and afterwards people started gathering at their apartment”, Balikis, one of the neighbours narrated the sad episode.
The poignant news which immediately went viral attracted attention of all and sundry in the neighbourhood, who gathered with hands akimbo and shocked at such level of absurdity.
They immediately stripped her naked and she was forced to carry the dead boy around the neighborhood.
According to neighbours, the late Seubow’s biological father is late but his bereaved mother is alive and resides at Bariga, Lagos. The unfortunate youngster began living with Olayemi and her Cotonou-born husband, Timothy in 2011. He had on many occasions, according to them, been a victim of her foster mother’s maltreatment and violence.
“Seubow joined them around May 2011 and this woman had since then made life so unbearable for him, just the way she does to her children too. In June, the boy was battered to the extent that she was quizzed by the police”, One of the neighbours, Ruka disclosed.
Described by her fellow residents as a violent woman, the mother of four, a two-time divorcee, was said to have severally fought her husband who many described as quiet and easy-going. “She is so violent that she even fights neighbours with sharp and dangerous objects at the slightest provocation. She was sent packing from her former place of residence on Jimoh Aigbe Street, which is just some few streets away from here when she injured her landlady with a knife”, another resident, Modinatu affirmed.
When Sunday Express visited the crime scene, the atmosphere was still gloomy as neighbours were still reeling from the shock of the spine-chilling savagery.
The Timothys’ apartment was locked up as neighbours confirmed that the killer wife and her husband had been rounded up and taken to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Yaba, where they are currently cooling their heels.
Some of the bewildered neighbours, the deceased school teachers, colleagues, among others spoke to Sunday Express, sharing their long held views about Olayemi and also recalling their last moments with the deceased, and how on so many occasions he had been victim of assault and battery.
Killer mum made life miserable for me -Greg Charity, former landlady
When she wouldn’t stop fighting me on the slightest provocation, I evicted her from my house just three months into her term despite the fact that her rent covered a period of 18 months. I had to run around to get money to refund her rent so that she wouldn’t send me to an early grave. Whenever we had trivial issues we need to iron out, she’d take it personal and resort to fomenting trouble. There was a time we had a little misunderstanding, surprisingly she hit me with her fists. My fellow landlords and landladies have been congratulating me that she didn’t commit murder in my house.
She was feared in the neighbourhood because of her violent behaviour -Iyabo, Neighbour
I don’t think I’ve seen a married woman as violent as Olayemi. She even extended her violent behaviours to her own children. She used to batter her children whenever they erred and she would not stop until she inflicted injuries on them. Neighbours’ appeals always fell on deaf ears. She has in the name of discipline used a knife to injure her first daughter, Anu, over issues bordering on misdemeanour. She is so violent that she even fights neighbours with objects at the slightest provocation.
The husband is a gentleman -Gbenga, Neighbour
Since they’ve been living here, I’ve never seen him beat the little boy, or any of his children. He can aptly be described as a perfect gentleman. He comes back home every Saturday from where he works and goes back on Monday. He is not always around when she batters the children. But, whenever he returns and sees the injury inflicted on the children, he questions her and it often results into quarrels.
I once arrested her for battering the boy - Alexander Akinnurun, Proprietor, Alex High School ( Seubow’s school)
She has been perpetrating those devilish acts for quite some time now and reports of her heinous deeds abound everywhere in Ijegun Community. In June, Seubow who happened to be one of my pupils came to school with a disfigured face and wounds on his body. I was so moved by this that I reported the incident to the police. I don’t know how far the police went with the matter but I never expected that such an ugly incident would still repeat itself.
Seubow came to school with swollen face and blood-stained clothes
-Teacher
Even the woman’s daughter graduated from this school. She was also a victim of reckless beating from her mother. But the boy suffered most in her hands. Sometimes, he was absent from school, for reasons best known to his guardian. But when he came around, you could see that unhappiness in him. On some occasions I had seen his uniform with blood stains and by investigations we knew that he was either beaten mercilessly with cane or sharp objects by his so-called mother.
He was my best friend –John, classmate
We all will miss him dearly. I want the Police to punish the woman that killed our classmate. He was my best friend in school.
We are more than baffled -Ijegun Community Leaders
What a shocking and barbaric action. If this kind of incessant battering report had gotten to us, we would have summoned this devil incarnate of a woman. And our worry is that the case might end up being swept under the carpet. I’m convinced that the boy’s blood will not let her have peace in her entire lifetime.
However, police sources at Isheri-Oshun Police Division where the case was reported confirmed to Sunday Express that the suspects had been taken to the State Criminal Investigations Department, Yaba, while the dead body of Seubow will be handed over to his mother, who recently surfaced.
However, efforts to reach the deceased’s Bariga-based mother as at the time of filing this report proved abortive.
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