Photo: Business man ties apprentice for 10days without food in Lagos
of Enugu State to serve as an apprentice to an auto -parts dealer in
Ladipo, Lagos, popularly called Elopee, members of his family heaved a
sigh of relief, believing that their only child was making a positive
headway in life.
Little did they know that the secondary school holder will end up
being traumatized by his master. He was thoroughly tortured, tied
with ropes and dumped inside a room in the master's house for about
ten days without food or water. According to him, he was accused of
not reconciling their sale's book properly resulting in the loss of
N4,000.
The ugly incident which took place at Number 1, Bisi Yusuf area,
Kainde in Ayobo, a suburb of Lagos State, aroused the anger of their
neighbours who promptly alerted policemen on patrol from Ayobo
division and they swiftly responded. The eagle-eyed policemen
reportedly broke into the premises after making frantic calls without
response while the agonising cries of pain was coming from one of
the rooms in the house.
When they succeeded in gaining entry into the building, they were
shocked to see a 23-year-old boy, tied hands and legs and dumped like
an animal in one corner of the room. He had bruises all over his body
and his head was smeared with caked blood. They quickly rescued the
poor boy and while searching the house, they saw a female teenager who
claimed to be a relation to the wife of his master and they took all
of them to their station for questioning.
His plight
Police sources said while narrating his plight, the boy disclosed that
his master, Elochukwu Ikwueze, is from Akama-Oye in Eziagu L.G.A. of
Enugu State. According to sources, the boy signed agreement to serve
the man for seven years, and he had already served five years. They
were living in a two-room apartment at Number 43, Eyegun street,
Mafoluku, Lagos before his master got married and moved to his own
house at Ayobo. They normally spent weekdays at Mafoluku but always
spent weekends in the man's house at Ayobo.
The boy narrated that on Sunday, 25th of September, while they were at
Ayobo, they all embarked on cleaning the house and it's surroundings
in the morning. They continued with the exercise till evening and
when he requested for food, both his master and his wife ignored him.
He said his master later started questioning him about their sales the
previous day and he explained everything to him.
"He complained that about N4,000 was missing from a sale of N28,000
we made but I explained everything to him yet, he insisted that the
money was missing. Later, I went into my room .
Few minutes later, he came into the room, armed with a huge stick and
started beating me. He called on my second and both of them tied my
hands and legs with a rope, dragged me into the kitchen and locked the
place up. I was abandoned inside the kitchen for about three days
until I noticed that somebody slipped a plate of food through an
opening to me.
Hungrily, I ate the food. I was defecating and urinating inside the
same place until seven days later when the pains became unbearable. I
then started crying and raising my voice, calling for help. It was
then that I knew that the small girl living with us, a relation of my
master's wife, was also left in the house and she was the person that
slipped food into the kitchen for me.
How he was rescued
"After sometime, I overheard people shouting at out gate, calling for
the door to be opened. Later, they broke into the premises and I saw
they were policemen. They rescued me and took both of us to their
station where I narrated all that happened to me. "Crime Guard
gathered that after Policemen broke into the house, they found the
female teenager in the parlour. She led them to the kitchen where they
saw the boy, tied like a goat with splashes of his urine and excreta
all over the room. The divisional Police officer, Musa Lariski
reportedly directed his men to quickly rush the boy to the nearest
hospital where he was giving proper medical attention beofore he was
brought back to the station.
It was learnt that since then, all efforts made by detectives to trace
the owner of the house and his wife yielded negative results.A team
of policemen were also said to had gone to his shop at Ladipo market
only to discover that he had not shown his face since the the boy was
rescued from his house. It was gathered that one of the market
leaders assured the police that they will trace his whereabouts and
bring him to the station.
Meanwhile, when Crime Guard had a brief encounter with the distraught
boy, he was crying and lamenting the fate that befell him. In tears
he said, "My fear is that he has my identity card and he may fram me
up. I did not take even a kobo from his money, he was only trying to
avoid settling me after my stewardship.
That is how he has been treating all the boys that suffered for him,
he will frame you and deny you reaping the reward of your stewardship.
Whatever happened, I am happy with the police for rescuing me alive.
Who knows what could have happened to me later," he questioned.
Source: Vanguard
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