Mistress sets 9-year-old house maid on fire

A woman, Nkese Iroakazi, who allegedly doused her nine-year-old housemaid, Eno Bassey, with kerosene and set her ablaze at Surulere area of Lagos, has been charged with murder.

Iroakazi was brought before a Senior Magistrate, Bola Folarin-Williams of Yaba Magistrate's Court, Lagos, on Thursday.

The 51-year-old woman faces a count charge of unlawfully killing Bassey, whom she brought to Lagos from Calabar, Cross River State, two months before the incident.

The charge read, "That you, Nkese, on July 27, 2013 at 7, Adeniran Ogunsanya Street, Surulere, Lagos, unlawfully killed Eno Bassey by setting her on fire, an offence that contravenes Section 221 of the Criminal Code, Laws of Lagos State, 2011."

Folarin-Williams did not take her plea but ordered the police prosecutor, Inspector Chris Takim, who stood in for a Superintendent of Police, Felix Efijan, to duplicate the case file and forward same to the Director of Public Prosecution for legal advice.

Iroakazi was remanded in prison pending the advice of the DPP which will be heard before the court on October 2, 2013.

The defendant's lawyer, Mr. O. Onohwakpor, had told the court that he would present a written application for her bail before the court at a later date.

"We are also appealing to the court to remand her at the Ikoyi Prisons because she has suffered enough where she has been kept. There are facts that are not reflected in the charge read before this court. It does not really reflect the true fact of the case," the lawyer said.
It was reported on August 3, 2013 that Bassey sustained severe burns on the head, body and feet before giving up the ghost seven days after.

A motorist helped put out the fire with his car's fire extinguisher while it took the timely intervention of the police to save Iroakazi from being lynched.

Bassey died at the Burns Unit of the Gbagada General Hospital, Lagos.

No relative has showed up to claim the remains of Bassey which are still in the mortuary.

The Director of a Non-Governmental Organisation, Esther Child Rights Foundation, Mrs. Esther Ogwu, that has been handling the case since the incident broke, said that, "I don't even know what to say about that poor girl's parents. All attempts to get them to come to Lagos have been abortive.

"Is it that they are afraid of being blamed for releasing the little girl to the accused woman or they just don't want to have anything to do with the case? We just don't understand.

"What sort of parents will abandon their child to this kind of fate and will care less even when they learnt that she was dead?"

It was learnt that the initial delay in arraigning Iroakazi was because the deceased's parents failed to honour the invitation extended to them by the police even as they rebuffed attempts to bring them to Lagos.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, an official of Lagos State Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, hinted that the corpse of Bassey might be buried by the government her relatives did not show up to claim it.