Father Padlocks Son’s Mouth, Beats Him To Death

A  father has allegedly beaten his four-year old son to death, padlocking his mouth to prevent him from shouting while the beating lasted.
The incident occurred on Monday afternoon at 7, Adetola Adelaja Street, Meiran area of Lagos, southwest Nigeria.
We gathered that the man, Mr. Chris Elvis, who claims to sell computer accessories, allegedly locked his son, Godrich in the room, padlocked his mouth and beat him to death with an object that inflicted deep cuts all over his body, claiming that the boy was an Ogbanje (evil child that dies and reincarnates repeatedly).
The man landed in trouble when his landlady, Mrs Popoola who was in the market, was informed that something was happening in her house. She rushed home and discovered that the boy had been beaten to death by his father.
She rushed to Meiran Police Station to report the matter. The police stormed the house around 9 O’clock last night to arrest Elvis who was about to escape.
After allegedly killing the boy, he locked him in one of his rooms. He told the police that nothing happened but when the police forced the locked room open, they found the dead boy with padlock in his mouth.
Husband of the landlady, Mr. Olusola Adejumo said that the deceased boy was four years old and that the man had been acting strange since he packed into the compound last year.
According to him, when Elvis came into the compound about six months ago, he came with his children and wife and that he claimed to sell computer accessories, adding that in the first two weeks of his stay in the house, he beat up his wife thoroughly.
He said he had gone to the police station to report the incident and that the police invited them to settle the matter and warned Elvis not to beat his wife again or he would be arrested.
Adejumo explained that sometime ago, the man travelled with his family and did not return with his wife, but came with the four-year old boy and another woman, whom he claimed was now his wife because he had parted ways with his former wife.
He said that yesterday, his new wife rushed out of the house shouting for help that the man wanted to kill his son, adding that the man came out of the house and chased his wife with a cutlass, calling the woman a witch.
It was gathered that the man came back into his room and locked it, padlocked the boy’s mouth and beat him till he died.
The police at Meiran took the boy’s corpse away and deposited it at the Ota General Hospital, while the man was detained and would be transferred to Area ‘M’ Police Division in Lagos later for further investigation.
After the incident on Monday, the police also arrested the landlady who came to report the matter at the police station and detained her till Tuesday morning, while allegedly demanding for N50,000 to bail the innocent woman.
A tenant in the house, Apostle Freedom Damian said Elvis had been a strange man in the house as he do not talk to anybody and was always keeping to himself and nobody could ask him questions.
He described the murder of the boy as gruesome and cruel.
Tenants living in the same compound with Elvis never knew his name and could not tell our reporter his name because he does not interact with people