10-year-old suspect opens up on why she pushed her step brother into well

The Ondo State Police Command has arrested a 10-year-old girl for allegedly committing murder at Owode Community in the Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State.

The suspect, whose parents hail from Sokoto State, allegedly pushed a 20-month-old boy, who was her stepbrother, into a deep well.

After committing the act, it was gathered that the suspect initially told her father that the deceased had been kidnapped.

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr Bolaji Salami, who spoke with journalists about the incident, on Friday in Akure, said the incident happened on December 15, 2020.

He said, “She initially told their father that someone had kidnapped her brother (stepbrother). But she later informed her parents that the boy was inside a well. The deceased’s corpse was later recovered from the well. On receipt of the information, detectives swung into action and arrested the suspect. On interrogation, she confessed to the crime.”

On why she committed the dastardly act, the primary 3 pupil, who was weeping profusely during the interview, said she did not know that her action would result in the death of her stepbrother.

She said she committed the act to avenge the maltreatment meted out to her by the deceased’s mother.

The suspect alleged that his father’s wife always maltreated her following her mother’s separation from her father. She also accused her father of showing much more affection for her late stepbrother than herself. She further stated that she pushed the deceased into the well to punish her stepmother but not knowing it would result in his death.

She said, “My stepmother was always maltreating me. At times, he (the deceased) would pass excreta in the plate we ate with, and his mother would use the same plate to give me food. If I insisted that I would not eat the food, she would start beating me until I finished eating the food. Immediately after eating the food, I would start vomiting.

“On the day of the incident, the same thing happened. Later in the evening, I went to fetch water from the well and he followed me. A voice whispered to me that I should push him into the well and I did it. But I never knew that he would die.

“When they started looking for him and they couldn’t find him, my dad told me to lie that it was my mother who sneaked into our home to kidnap Usman. When I was told that everyone in the house would be taken to the palace of the monarch to swear an oath, I confessed.”

The police commissioner said the suspect would soon be charged.