Mum, friend set son ablaze for stealing memory card

An angry mother in Umuahia, Abia, has killed her 13-year-old son, Obioma Odum, by setting him on fire in a bid to make him confess to stealing.

Chinyere accused her son of stealing her phone’s memory card, and, together with her unnamed friend, tied up the boy, and whacked him a few times.

According to neighbours, the two women later dragged the boy into the kitchen and set him ablaze to make him to confess.

The boy’s father, Odum, said the youths of the community forced the kitchen door open when they saw smokes billowing out of the kitchen and found the boy on fire.

The youths brought out the boy from the kitchen after putting out the fire. But when they rushed him to a hospital in the area, he had sustained up to 54 per cent burns.

“He was subsequently referred to the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, which also referred him to the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu. He died at the FMC this morning (Tuesday) before he could be moved,” said Odum, who claimed he was at work when the incident happened.

Chinyere has no history of mental problem. But her husband has some suspicion since the time she was taken to a place “where she turned into something else”.

“There was a time she broke my head with a cutlass for asking her to severe a relationship with one boy,” he said.