A Lagos man and his wife, who passed through the agony of watching their daughter die because there was no money to treat her, are now facing the law because they threw her corpse into a canal, also because there was no money.
The Nigeria Police on Tuesday arraigned the 49-year-old man before a Chief Magistrate Court on Ebutte Meta, Lagos, for dumping the remains of his four-year-old daughter into a canal
Adekunle Adewusi, who lives at Folorunsho Kuku Street, Opebi, Ikeja, allegedly committed the act on February 7 near his residence.
The police prosecutor, Kehinde Omisakin, told the court that the accused, a painter, had nine children with his wife whom he married in 1999.
Ms. Omisakin said the accused lives close to the canal, and his wife, who is still at large, works as a cleaner to augment the family’s income.
The accused narrated to the court the touching story of how he lost his daughter to death that could have been avoided. He said his deceased daughter, Rachel, had sustained an injury while playing with other children.
“I wasn’t aware she fell,” he said.
“She was telling me and the mother that the place where she goes to play, a girl called her by her name Rachael, pushed her into the canal and she hit her stomach on a sharp object.
“We carried her to a nurse who advised us to take her to a General hospital but because there was no money I bought her blood tonic syrup.
“She is my sixth child and we don’t have any picture of her. When she died there was no money to take her to the mortuary and there was no money to buy land and bury her.
“So that’s why my wife and I decided to put her corpse into a sack bag and kept her body beside the canal where we lived. Which we later throw her inside the canal at Monkey Village Opebi, Ikeja Lagos.”
The offence contravened sections 411 and 165 (a) (b) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015, the prosecutor said.
The presiding Magistrate, T.A Elias ordered the accused to be remanded at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, and adjourned till February 27 for him to appear with his wife and children.
Despite earning over $700bn from oil export alone since independence, there majority of Nigerians have no access to health care.
Nigeria has one of the highest mortality rate in the world.
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