How Dad beat my 11-year-old brother to death – Kid sister

  It is not certain that nine-year-old Kabirat Shitta will forget the death of her brother for a long time to come.

She was a witness to the August 10, 2011 murder of her 11-year-old brother, Toib, by their mechanic father, Tunde.

Kabirat recounted in graphic details how her father used a hose, a wooden stirrer and a stool to end Toib’s life.

PUNCH METRO had, on August 12, published the story of Toib’s death.

However, further investigations have revealed that Toib was killed in the presence of Kabirat and her younger brother, Muiz, 5.

PUNCH METRO learnt that family members were putting pressure on Toib’s mother, Shakirat and sister, Kabirat, to change their statements. They are being told to change the statement to the police to show that Toib fell and died.

But the girl told PUNCH METRO that her daddy killed her brother.

She explained, “On August 10, Aunty Ayo, my father’s second wife, sent Toib to go and buy Indomie noodles. Toib was sleepy and reluctant to go. When my dad came back from work, Aunty Ayo reported to dad.

“My daddy became angry and started beating Toib. He first punched him and Toib started to run around the house.

“My father ran after him and then got a hose and started flogging him with it. I don’t know why he was so angry but he was just beating him. He also took a wooden stirrer and hit him with it.

“As if the beating was not enough; my daddy picked a stool and hit Toib’s head with it. Immediately, Toib started to bleed and then died afterwards.”

She said after the incident, Ayo and one of her father’s younger brothers cleaned up the blood in the room.

“They said that I should assist them in cleaning up the blood. So, I used a rag to clean the blood.

“Afterwards, one of my uncles told me to tell people that Toib fell and hit his head against a stool when my father was trying to flog him so that people will not say that my father killed Toib. But the truth is that my father hit Toib’s head with the stool,” Kabirat said.

PUNCH METRO also gathered from a police source that Tunde, after killing his son, buried him immediately according to Islamic rites in his grandfather’s compound. The source added that Tunde did not report the incident to the police even though the Itire Police Division is less than 100 metres from his home located at 33 Adeniyi Street, Surulere.

The source said, “Tunde did not report the incident to the police. When quizzed, he said it was because he was a Muslim and the death occurred in the month of Ramadan. So, he wanted the corpse buried immediately.”

It was also gathered that during police interrogation, Tunde claimed that Toib fell and hit his head while trying to evade punishment.

Shakirat, a street sweeper with the Lagos State Waste Management Agency, told PUNCH METRO that although she still had three other children, the death of Toib, her first child, was painful.

She said “Toib was my first child and because he was the most mature among all my children, we were very close. I will never forget him because people still refer to me as ‘Iya Toib’ (Toib’s mother), as it is done in Yoruba culture.”

Shakirat told PUNCH METRO that her ex-husband is a violent man who flares up at the slightest provocation.

She said, “Tunde is very hot tempered. That was one of the reasons I divorced him last year. Even when I was five months pregnant with our last child, Rebecca, he would still beat me up and instruct me to sleep on the floor while he slept on the bed

“When he threatened to kill me, I moved out of the house. Less than a month later, he married another woman and banned me from coming to the house or visiting my own children.”

Shakirat said after Tunde prevented her from seeing her children, she added that she used to go to their schools to visit them regularly.

“I could not see my children as often as I would have wanted, but I used to visit them in their schools. They were on holiday when the tragic incident occurred, so I had no way of seeing them.”

Sakirat, who became emotional, narrated her last moment with her son.

She said “The last time I saw Toib was on Monday, August 8. He came to see me and I noticed a wound on his head. When I asked him how he came about the injury, he said his dad beat him up because he went to buy Maltina from a woman who was my friend.

“Toib was preparing to write common entrance examination. At his age, he ought to have started secondary school but because of the domestic violence he was witnessing, he could hardly concentrate in class.

“I remember in 2008, when Toib was about nine years old, his father beat him to a pulp for bringing home a toy that he picked up from the road.

“Toib sustained serious injuries to the extent that the doctor had to put plaster of Paris around his arm. I still have the doctor’s report.”

Since the tragic incident, Shakirat has taken custody of her other children.

She said, “On the day of Toib’s death, it was neighbours that informed me of the incident. I went to make a police statement but when policemen got to the house, Tunde had ran away. It was not until after policemen arrested his father, an Imam, that Tunde later came to the station to turn himself in.

“I took my children away but things are difficult, I can not leave them again with him.

“Toib had a talent for arts. He could draw anything. He would have been an architect or an artist had he lived long.”

The state police command’s spokesperson, Mr. Samuel Jinadu, said investigation was ongoing. He added that after investigation, the suspect would be charged to court.

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