Yaba Magistrate’s Court in Lagos, southwest Nigeria, has ordered that Mrs Nkese Iroakazi, the nurse who allegedly set an 11-year old girl ablaze last month, be remanded at Kirikiri Prison till October.
The little girl set ablaze, Ita Bassey-Eno, died at the Gbadaga General Hospital a week later as a result of the severe burns she suffered.
The nurse allegedly poured kerosene on her and lit a match stick and fire engulfed the girl.
Iroakazi was arrested and detained at the Bode Thomas Police Station after she allegedly set the little girl staying with her ablaze.
She was later transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID and detained until she was arraigned in court on Thursday.
The suspect was charged with the murder of Ita Bassey-Eno. She was not granted bail by the court when she was arraigned.
On 27 July, 2013, residents of Adeniran Ogunsanya Street, Surulere heard a little girl screaming and to their astonishment, they saw the girl on fire rushing out of her apartment at 7 Adeniran Ogunsanya Street, Surulere, and crying for help.
The driver of a car quickly stopped and used his fire extinguisher to quench the fire buring all over the girl’s body, but by then, the damage had been done.
The girl was rushed to the Gbagada General Hospital where doctors battled unsuccessfully to save her life.
Iroakazi was alleged to have poured kerosene on Bassey-Eno before lighting a match stick to set her azlaze after the girl was said to have stolen a piece of meat from the pot.
Bassey-Eno, who hails from Akwa Ibom State, was brought from the village with another girl, Happiness Okon-Bassey, 13, to live with the woman in June 2013 on the promise that she would send them to school, but that was not to be as the two girls allegedly performed the function of domestic servants for their mistress.
The little girl was rushed to the Burns and Trauma Centre, an annex of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital in the General Hospital, Gbagada for urgent attention where the doctors said she had suffered 95 percent burns and would take a miracle for her to survive.
Executive Director, Esther Child Rights Foundation, ECRF, Mrs. Esther Ogwu, who was at the hospital to see the girl wept profusely when she saw her pathetic state, saying that in all her life as human rights activist, she had never come across such a gruesome case as the girl’s own.
Ogwu said the story that the stove in the kitchen fell and set the girl ablaze was unbelievable, alleging that all facts pointed to the woman to have allegedly poured kerosene on the girl and set her ablaze.
At the Bode Thomas Police Station, police sources alleged that the little girl confessed that her mistress poured kerosene on her and set her ablaze.
On 2 August, Bassey-Eno eventually died after she went through agonizing pins. The doctors could not save her life.
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