Pastor inflicts burns on boy with electric iron

Posted by admin Headlines Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011

A self-acclaimed man of God, Pastor Chukwudi Ibe, of Divine Power Ministry in Onitsha, is currently cooling his feet in a police cell over gross abuse of his ward.

The pastor, with a hot electric iron, had inflicted severe burns on the 11-year-old boy, identified as Friday, who he accused of stealing N200 and keeping bad company.

According to a concerned neighbour who alerted the police, the victim went through hell in the hands of his guardian and wife.

He said that he was maltreated everyday after which he was chained and locked up in the house until evening when the couple returned from work to start another round of torture.

He further said that boy did not go to school but was forced to do all manner of job that a child of his age could not naturally do.

Speaking to newsmen, the pastor confirmed burning the victim with hot iron but claimed it was a measure intended to make him desist from stealing.

“I had to burn him with hot iron so that he will see the mark on his body and stop stealing,”he insisted.

Ibe, who did not show any remorse for his action, stated that his wife chained the lad everyday to prevent him from straying into the neighborhood, adding that each time he was not chained, he always stayed out late into the night.

The wife, who said the victim is her elder sister’s child, claimed she was not aware that her husband was burning the child with hot iron.

A policeman at the Central Police Station, Onitsha, who pleaded anonymity, said that they got a distress call from a concerned citizen that a man was about to kill his ward, stating that the police swiftly responded and arrested the suspect and the wife.

However, when contacted, the Divisional Police Officer, Central Police Station, Yusuf Abdul, said he was yet to be officially briefed about the matter

-Tribunewp_posts