The Lagos State Police Command has arrested a woman identified as Mama Emeka, for allegedly burning her stepsister with a hot iron.Though the incident occurred on Christmas Day at 36, Fadeyi Street, Olowora, the suspect was arrested yesterday following the intervention of the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence team in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth and Social Development.
The suspect, who usually assaulted the 16-year-old victim, accused her of being stubborn. The suspect, it was gathered, usually “over-labored” the teenager, whose mother reportedly abandoned her after the death of her father.
According to sources, residents of the street revolted against the woman, who also used razor blade to cut the victim’s thighs and shaved her hair.They alleged that the woman usually forced the victim to hawk and work into the later hours of the night.
According to a source, residents mobilised to ensure the suspect was apprehended and handed over to policemen from Ketu Police Division, while the victim was taken into protective custody.
Meanwhile, the South South Consultative Forum comprising Edo, Bayelsa, Rivers, Cross River, Akwa Ibom and Delta State, has harped on the need to protect women against assault and battery.
The forum yesterday in Asaba also reviewed emerging issues on women, peace and security as incorporated in the National Action Plan, which was fallout of the South-South Zonal Consultation and Review Meeting on the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 earlier held in Asaba last year.
In what was described as ‘absurdity’, the forum condemned as “taboo” the growing trend of woman sexually assaulted and battered by men or their husbands in recent times, assuring that the forum would do everything to protect womanhood.
Participants at the forum, many of whom were women, deliberated extensively on women, peace and security issues affecting women nationwide, disclosing that over 16,000 cases of sexual harassment and alleged rape were recorded last year across the country.The forum was declared open by the Delta State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Community and Social Development, Rev Omatsola Williams.