Photos: Mum accused of beating her children with knife and cutlass

A woman who cooks, washes, bathes and defecates in a single room which
she shares with her four young children has been accused of brutally
assaulting them. According to a report by the The Nation, Mrs Toyin
Abiodun beats her children with knife, cutlass, belt and iron. The boy
pictured right is her first son and you can all see the marks on his
head and face, and his dislocated arm..all thanks to the woman he
calls mother. Read the sad full story after the cut...

From The Nation
Mrs. Toyin Abiodun lives with her four children in a one-room
apartment at Number 24, Adekunle Street, Akute- Odo , Ogun State. In
her room she cooks, eats, washes her clothes and dishes. She and her
four children defecate, and have their bath in the same room.
According to her co-tenants, Toyin abuses her children by locking them
up and using cutlass, knife and belt to beat them. Evidence of this is
on their bodies. Their heads and bodies are full of scars while their
hands are dislocated.The eldest of the kids , Dejitade,11, in Z I
Primary School , Akute School Two!

When The Nation got to the school, the teachers (who begged for
anonymity ) described the situation of the three children as
pathetic, "we are so afraid and full of pity for these kids and we had
to report the incident to our community head , Oba Aleeh Idowu
Akindele."
According to the children, their mother would give them caps to cover
their heads in order to avoid the scars from being seen or discovered.
The other girl has a strange big Bob Marley strands of over 500 woven
on her head to cover the scars on her head. The hair looked weird as
it is too heavy for such a small girl of four!
One of the teachers with misty eyes said, "The eldest one is in
Primary Two at age 11, yet he cannot read or identify numbers one to
four, he is always afraid and his speech is blurred and could no
longer reason well, this is as a result of abuse from her mother."
Another teacher who was full of pity said "The children are always
afraid to go home when it is time for them to go.They said their
mother used to beat them with any object from knife, cutlass, belt to
iron. These kids need to be rescued before it is too late."

Dejitade said his mother uses stick, cutlass, and knife to beat them.
He said it is true that she maltreats them always. He said she does
not care. "She would put knife in the fire and use it to cut our
body."
Emmanuel said he is in KG Two, he said his mother used to beat them
with cutlass, belts , sticks and knives.
Damilola, 4, said she does not want to live with their mother again.
"My mother is wicked", she kept on repeating the statement.

The landlord of the house, Samuel Soyemi, said the woman (pictured
above) was her late mother's tenant. " I asked of her husband but she
said she was no longer with her husband. When I called the husband he
said he is no longer interested in their relationship. This woman is
weird, she would lock up the children and leave home till evening
while they would be crying. She has done like that four times locking
the children in the room. She does not cooperate with anybody. It's
like she has psychological problem .One day she locked up the
children and used a knife she brought from the fire and cut their
scalps, their heads are full of scars. She gave them caps to be
wearing and tutored them to tell whoever asked about their scars that
they were involved in motor accidents. That is why they wear caps
.She baths for them in the room, cooks, wash clothes and defecates in
the same room they live."

When The Nation visited Toyin at her residence she was met with a
belt in her hand with eyes frowned, possibly she had just finished
beating one of the kids. While the last one was on a potty defecating
and at the same time eating along with his brothers and sister from
same plate!
When asked about her life, she said she had the eldest child for her
husband and later had another for another man but both are not serious
men .On the last baby , she denied she is the mother and said the baby
belongs to her sister, when asked where the sister lives, she kept
quiet and started challenging the reporter on his mission. However,
she confessed that she at present has no man in her life as she had
divorced her first and second husband who did not care for her. She
added that all the tenants in the house hated her including the
landlord , "they all hate me here and do not mind their business. In
fact, I suspect it is either the landlord who had wanted me to
befriend him and I refused or my former husband who came to report me
in your office."

" I have called the landlord to confirm what was happening in the
house and he said it is true. I have instructed them to call the human
rights organization to wade into the matter. I don't believe we can
allow the children to still be under the mother's care. We need to
rescue the children."