The mother of the 18 year old boy arrested for killing a 12 year old hawker, Esa Egbo has said that her son is possessed by an evil spirit which causes him to rape little girls. She also stated that her son had no access to Pastor Sign Fireman, General Overseer of Perfect Christianity Mission.
His mother said, “He started two years ago to molest girls in attempt to rape them. It is not an ordinary thing. You know some people are very good in hurting other people’s children. So for that reason I am suspecting that. He has been staying with me from birth and just two years ago when he was 16 years old, a man who lives close to us laid a curse on him.
“What happened was that we have a well in our compound and Ikechukwu and one of the man’s daughters were at the well fetching water and they had a quarrel. Ikechuwu beat up the girl and when the man returned he brought out a belt to whip Ike and I prevented him. He started boasting that he was going to make Ike useless and miserable. I thought he was joking but after that Ikechuwu started behaving funny.
“Whenever he goes out during the day and sees a little girl he would grip and attempt to rape her and the girl would scream alerting people around, who would arrest and beat him up before handing him over to the police at Badagry Police Station.
“On lucky days, he would escape and flee the area. He has been arrested four times over the same offence and I am the one who normally goes to bail him.
“In April last year, he made me lose over N25,000 I paid as WAEC exam fee. On the day he was supposed to start the exam, he left home with his school uniform and didn’t return until after two weeks. When he came back he told me that the demon came over him on his way to school and he gripped a girl and when the girl screamed he managed to escape so he decided to run away from home.
“I and the father went to beg the people whose child he molested and I decided to follow him to school through out his NECO examinations.
“The last one before this occurred on December 10, 2013 at Imeke. He was arrested and charged to court and remanded in Badagry Prison. I got a lawyer who stood for him before he was granted bail.
“While these things were happening, I told our branch pastor at Badagry about it but I didn’t tell our GO.
“Whenever he sees a little girl he would grip the girl and when she screams he would return to him self. He does not do it at night, it’s always during the day time.”
“On this particular case, he told me that he was going to work at a place where a building was demolished by government opposite the French Village in Badagry. They are actually constructing a factory at that place and he used to help them carry bags of cement for which they paid him some stipends at the end of the day.
“He failed to return home that day and I and his father went out to look for him at his place of work and people around told us that they didn’t see him. The next day we didn’t see him, so by Wednesday, we decided to go to the police station at Badagry.
“A police woman we met told us that we should go to the SCID to look for him. I asked her what was his offence and she refused to tell me, rather she said when I got to the SCID that I would know what was my son’s offence.
“The next day I and my husband went to the SCID and when I saw my son he told me that there was a woman who sells food close to where he used to work and the woman had a daughter.
“He said on that day he was eating at the woman’s shop when he saw the girl passing and all of a sudden something came over him and he stood up and followed the girl and gripped her so tight and the girl screamed and died after which he regained consciousness.
“He attempted to run, but someone at a building close by who saw all what happened apprehended him. He used to tell me that he was not misbehaving consciously but that something used to come over him and I have told our branch pastor about it and he prayed for him.”
Pastor Sign Fireman also denied knowing the boy.
He said: “I don’t know that boy and if anybody should know him or his family as members of our church, it’s the Badagry branch pastor. I am the GO of my church. You can imagine how possible it would be for an 18-year-old boy from a distant branch to have easy access to me talk alone contracting him to kill someone on my behalf.”