Zainab Oluwole, a 9 year old girl, narrowly
escaped death in the Oyo-Ode area of Ede in Osun State recently. Zainab’s
mother, Adebukola Oluwole, a nurse at the State Hospital, Ede, was cooking
dinner for her family to break their fast when she realised that she needed to
buy some things and headed for the market.
Unknown to her, a burglar was lurking around the house and
waiting for an opportunity to strike. The burglar invaded the house having seen
that the man of the house, Mr. Raheem Kabir, had earlier left the house before
the woman also left.
Although Zainab and her sister, Aishat, who is only 7 years
old, were intelligent enough to bolt the door as soon as their mother
left, yet this action did not save them from the criminal’s attack.
The criminal made several attempts to trick the two children to open the door
for him but they refused.
Zainab, who still had plasters over her wound, narrated what
happened that day. She said:
“The man peeped from the window and asked my sister and I to
open the door for him but we refused. We wanted to escape through the back door
but he heard the sound of our footsteps and came to the back door also. When we
saw that there was no way to escape, we decided to hide inside the house.
“He broke down part of the wall and crept inside through the
hole. He caught me but my sister sneaked out through the back door and ran away
to call some of our neighbours.”
Zainab said that the man took her around the rooms and asked
her where her mother kept money and other valuables in the house but she
answered that she did not know.
After a futile attempt to steal money and other valuables,
the robber threatened to kill the young girl and later dragged her towards the
bush not far from the house.
The little girl said she started crying and the man lay her
head on a boulder near the building and raised his cutlass with the intention
of cutting off her head.
However, some of the neighbours, who had rushed towards the
direction of her screaming, saw the man who was about decapitating her. She
said she struggled with him and, broke free. The cutlass missed the girl’s neck
but hit the left side of her temple, leaving her with a deep cut.
The neighbours saw the girl bleeding and decided not to
pursue the fleeing armed man but rushed the bleeding girl to a nearby hospital
where she was treated.
Zainab’s mother said the management of the hospital insisted
that the family must notify the police and they reported the case at the
Divisional Police Station in Ede.
Although the mother was still in shock, she was happy that
her daughter survived the attack.
She said, “The strange man wanted to slaughter my daughter
to avoid being identified. I am not sure whether he is a ritualist or a robber
but I am thankful to God for sparing Zainab’s life.“I am very happy that my
daughter is alive today, because when I was alerted that something terrible had
happened in my house, I thought my children had poured the hot food I was
cooking on their body, not knowing that something worse than that had
happened.”
Punch.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment