How 12-year-old stepson killed own stepmum

What could a young boy of 12 be doing with a dane gun with a man twice his father’s age beside him? Could they have perpetrated a crime with the juvenile as a ring leader? But the troubled minds were further made sad, when the Commissioner of Police, Musa Daura, read out the case against […]

What could a young boy of 12 be doing with a dane gun with a man twice his father’s age beside him? Could they have perpetrated a crime with the juvenile as a ring leader? But the troubled minds were further made sad, when the Commissioner of Police, Musa Daura, read out the case against Mayowa Abegunrin. According to Daura, the unkempt boy had reportedly killed his step mother, Modinat Abegunrin and instead of feeling sober for committing the crime, Mayowa stood by the victim and according to eyewitness accounts, was not moved by the act and even voiced out that the stepmother will no longer send him on errands any more.

On that fateful day, when he was asked to proceed on an errand by the unsuspecting late stepmother, Mayowa, as he later narrated, dashed back into the house and as if possessed, headed straight for where a dane gun was kept by his grandfather. Perhaps, too sure that the dane gun was loaded, Mayowa came out of the house, aimed at the woman and pulled the trigger, throwing the victim down.

That was the tragic incident which led little and fragile 12- year-old Mayowa and his grandfather to be guests of the homicide department of the state police command where investigations evidently showed that he killed his stepmother.

Observers contend that environment and distance to urbanization, which could justify such actions were no longer applicable, as the case in question occurred in a remote village, many kilometers away from the city centre of Abeokuta.

So, to the people of  Amusan Sapotu village, in Odeda Local Government Area of Ogun State, Saturday, August 14 will forever be a sad one. The news of the incident spread like hamattan haze. According to the grandfather, the news of his grandson’s heinous crime was broken to him at a local market and upon rushing home, he was confronted with the reality.

 The state police boss disclosed that on the fateful day, at about 9.00hours, “one Alfred Sofela, a male of Amusan Sapotu village via Odeda, reported at the Odeda police station that on the same date, at about 700hours, one Muyiwa Abegunrin, male aged 12 years of the same village used his grandfather’s dane gun to shoot his step mother killing her instantly.”

The grandfather said that Mayowa had told those who first witnessed the incident that he was asked to go and peel cassava and because her errands were always overbearing, he decided to kill her. “I was at the market when the information came to me that Mayowa had killed his step mother and on getting home, the story was true and he seemed to be unperturbed by his action. We then decided to make a report at the Odeda police station before we were brought here.”

The 56-year-old said that the deceased was visiting them, “as she always does before going back to her husband (Mayowa’s father) in Lagos. Sometimes, she spent one or two weeks depending on what she will do.” Mayowa, on his part, Pa Abegunrin disclosed, had been living with him since he was young adding that the dane gun was his father’s own which he uses to hunt.

Asked why the gun was loaded even when not in use, Abegunrin said that was how it had been since over a year ago, “because we use to watch over the house.” But, the police would not accept the position of the grandfather who is being charged with complicity in the matter over alleged negligence.

The police public relations officer (PPRO), Muyiwa Adejobi, who spoke with Weekly Trust, said that Pa Abegunrin is likely to face the court over negligence. “He may have a case to answer. And that is negligence. Knowing fully well that such weapon was not supposed to be exposed to children who are vulnerable.

“If the gun had not been kept careless, the deceased might have survived, because even if the boy had reached for the gun to use and pull the trigger without being loaded, the woman would have raised alarm ,” Adejobi said.

On the young Mayowa himself, the PPRO told our correspondent that he too would have a case to answer irrespective of the fact that he is still a juvenile. “We have the law that takes care of people of his age. By the time we conclude our investigations, we shall take appropriate action that would serve as a deterrent in the future for others.” He said the boy’s argument hold no water. “There should be moderate punishment for our children. The boy said that the woman was maltreating him because she was not his mother. “That does not however exonerate the boy from blame, because he knew quite alright that the gun can kill, either animal or human being. He targeted the woman because if he did not, the woman would not be killed.”