Girl, 11, Set Ablaze By Foster Mother

An 11-year old girl, Ita Bassey-Eno, is now lying critically ill at the Gbagada General Hospital, Lagos, after she was set ablaze by her foster mother, Mrs. Nkese Iroakazi.

Iroakazi, a nurse, was alleged to have poured kerosene on Bassey-Eno before lighting a match stick to set her ablaze after the girl was suspected of stealing a piece of meat from her soup pot.

It was gathered that as the flame of fire engulfed the girl, she ran out of their Number 7, Adeniran Ogunsanya Street, apartment calling for help but before help could come, most parts of her body had been burnt.

Her life was eventually saved when neighbours who heard her screams used fire extinguishers to put out the fire, following which she was taken to the General Hospital and the matter reported at the Bode Thomas Police Station where the alleged culprit is still being detained.

Health officials at the Lagos Burns and Trauma Centre, an annex of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital at the General Hospital, Gbagada, said the little girl was brought to the hospital on Saturday for urgent medical attention.

The doctors said she suffered 95 per cent burns and it would take a miracle for her to survive.

The little girl now groans in pains as health officials battle to keep her alive.

In her statement at the police station, Iroakazi denied that she poured kerosene on the little girl's body and set her ablaze.

She maintained that she was in the sitting room when she heard a loud cry and rushed out only to see the girl on fire and called on people to help put out the fire.

To ensure that justice is done in the matter, officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA), were at the hospital and the police station where they spoke with the woman, but she denied the story.

The WAPA officials took one Okon-Bassey, the second girl said to have been brought from the village with them for rehabilitation pending when she would be reconciled with her real mother.

At the Bode Thomas Police Station, police sources alleged that the little girl confessed that her foster mother poured kerosene on her and set her ablaze.

The police authorities at the station said the woman would be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID, Panti for further investigation.