Pregnant housewife who allegedly killed stepdaughter pleads for leniency

An 18-year-old pregnant housewife, Khadija Adamu, whom the police arrested in Bauchi State for allegedly beating her five-year-old step-daughter to death for defecating on her body, has said she regrets her action.

She said it was not an intentional act but one aimed at correcting the child for wrongdoing.

Speaking in an interview with The PUNCH while being paraded before journalists at the Police Headquarters, Bauchi on Tuesday, she wondered why she would kill her stepdaughter.

“How can I kill a child who was like my child? Even though she was my co-wife’s baby, she was also my daughter because she was my husband’s child. What happened was just a mistake and not a deliberate intention to kill,” she said.

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“I am also a mother, and I am currently four months pregnant with my second child. How can I possibly kill another child? What happened was that this girl defecated on her body, and I felt that at her age, she shouldn’t have done that, so I used a USB cord to beat her with it. It was not as if I had any intention of killing her.

“I didn’t know she would die. I only wanted to correct her. She didn’t die that day I beat her, it was the next day that she died, and I felt very sad and unhappy that she had died.

“I asked for leniency because everyone has forgiven me. I asked the Police to pardon me if not for anything but for the baby I am carrying in my womb since what I did was not deliberate,” she added.

The PUNCH reports that the Bauchi State Commissioner of Police, Auwal Muhammad while parading the suspect before journalists at the Command’s Headquarters on Tuesday, said that the suspect, a resident of the Kandahar area, a suburb of Bauchi metropolis in the State, was arrested following serious injuries she inflicted on the minor.

He said that the incident happened on September 28, 2023, at about 9.25 pm, one Abdulaziz Adamu, male (38), of Kandahar area Bauchi, reported at A’ Divisional Police Headquarters that on the same date at about 4.00 pm, Khadija Adamu, female (18) of the same address beat up her stepdaughter named “Hafsat Garba” female (5). As a result, she sustained serious injuries to her body.

“Upon receipt of the report, a team of detectives led by DPO swung into action, rushed to the scene and moved the victim to Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi, for medical attention, where she was certified dead by the medical doctor.

“Preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect beat up the victim as a result of alleged pass-stool that spoiled her clothes, and she sustained various degrees of injuries on her body,” he said.

Speaking on the incident, the Commissioner of Police described the incident as a case of wickedness, calling on women to be careful how they discipline children when they err.

Muhammad said: “The case of envy and rivalry among wives is bad. We should try as much as possible to reduce it. This is an act of wickedness because you are not the biological mother of the five-year-old child; she stooled in her trousers, and then you beat her, and it caused her death.

“This is really, very sad. This is really very disturbing, causing the life of a five-year-old girl to be lost. A child that doesn’t know her left from her right. Just to correct her, you beat her to a stupor, and she died. It is really very sad. This should serve as a lesson to other women of like minds.”