A 14-year-old boy identified as Terkura has been beaten to death by his late father’s younger sister in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, for allegedly stealing N50 to buy biscuits.
Our correspondent gathered from neighbours who do not want their names in print that Terkura, who is staying with her aunty at a low level, has been going through a series of maltreatment by her aunty, who is supposed to be his caregiver in the absence of his father.
According to them, what led to Terkura’s death was that after being thoroughly beaten by her aunty with bruises all over her body, the said aunty left her in the pool of his blood to the village and instructed that Terkura should not be giving food and also not allow to sleep inside her room.
Terkura, also known as Aboy, was sleeping hungry in the cold Varanda. She was becoming weaker and weaker by the day, and her aunty’s neighbours called her, but she refused to come back and attend to him. However, the neighbours decided to rush him to the hospital in her absence, seeing his condition. Before they could commence treatment, he gave up the ghost.
Our correspondent also visited the Mother’s House, where he was staying with his late grandmother before moving to his aunty’s house on the pretence that she would train him in school as his late brother instructed him before he died.
The aunty’s house, which is located at high-level Makurdi, who spoke with our correspondent in tears, said she got the news of the death of Terkura and also called Aboy yesterday evening with rude shock and immediately called her biological mother, who was not in town.
“As she arrives, we rush to the aunty’s house on the low level to find out whether what we heard was true, but we were told his corpse was already taken to the morgue, and we were told the aunty was taken away by security operatives and up till now she is with them.”
According to her, “Terkura was staying here with us it was when he was about eight years and after the death of his father, the aunty came severally begging us to release the boy to her so that she will put him in school as instructed by his late brother before he died and that was why we released him to her.
A year later, we received a report that the woman was maltreating him to the extent that she beat him to a coma. Her neighbours reported her to the Women’s Affairs and Social Welfare Ministry. They came and arrested the woman and took Terkura from her; a few months later, Terkura was released to her on the pretence that she wanted to put him back in school, which she didn’t do till his date.
When this report was filed, the commissioner’s number needed to be connected. The PPRO did not reply to text messages and calls sent to him.
