10-YEAR-OLD BOY REVEALS -- "MY MOTHER TOLD ME TO POISON MY FATHER"

A young boy on Monday told a Mapo Customary Court in Ibadan that his mother asked him to put poison in his father’s food and bathing water. The boy’s mother, Adenike Ayodele, had petitioned the court to dissolve her 15-year-old marriage to her estranged husband, Adeshina, on grounds of irresponsibility and battery.

In his testimony, the 10-year-old boy told the court that his mother gave him a nylon which contained some powdery substance which she instructed him to pour in his father’s food as well as his bathing water. “After giving me the substance, my mother warned me never to tell my father or anyone about it. “However, I love my father and I told him because I never wanted any bad thing to happen to him,” the boy said.

Adenike, who lives at Agbaje area of Orita-challenge, Ibadan, had earlier told the court that Adeshina had turned her into a punching bag. “For 14 years, Adeshina has not stopped beating me and the last one he did was the reason why I made up my mind to call it quits with him,” she said Adeshina, however, consented to the petitioner’s request for termination of the marriage, but denied all the allegations leveled against him.“If I give her money to buy anything at home, she doesn’t put my name on the receipt,” he said. The petitioner was asked by the President of the court, Ademola Odunade, to bring her parents to the court. The case was then adjourned till February 27 for judgment.