• Mum from hell lacerates son’s   body with razor blade

By HENRY OKONKWO

When 14 year- old Lateef Lawal, a Junior Secondary School, JSS2, student of Morocco Junior High School, strolled into his parents’ apartment on 59 Market Street, Shomolu  in Lagos on that fateful day, being rushed upon and inflicted with deep razor blade cuts by his own mother was certainly the remotest thought on his mind.

But that was the brutal reception the poor lad got from his angry mother who also rained vicious invectives in a fit of rage that has begun to make the teen doubt the much universally professed mother-love.

His apparent crime: Returning late from a prayer session.

Now, Lateef suffers sharp and deep pains on his hands and all over his body lacerated by Mrs. Lawal, even after being medically treated.

Saturday Sun learnt that neighbors, who rushed to the scene, rescued Lateef from the barrage of physical and verbal assault and took him to the Shomolu General Hospital to treat the deep razor cuts.

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But, what could make a mother spill her own offspring’s blood with such savagery? Did the gravity of the offence match the punishment?

These were the questions agitating observers’ minds since the incident. Mrs Lawal was said to have claimed that her son’s thriftiness caused her fury.

But neighbours suggested that Lateef was a victim of a transferred aggression. According to them, the mother of three, and computer typist at one of the tertiary institutions in Lagos, is the breadwinner for Lateef and his two sisters- five year old Adiat and two –year- old Halimat and may have had her coping limit, sparked owing to the stress of meeting the burden.

“Her husband is a commercial driver. But he leaves and doesn’t come home for days, leaving his wife to fend for their three children. It could the anger, pressure and burden of running the home all alone that stressed her and caused her to be depressed,” volunteered a neighbour, who identified herself simply as Mrs. Olayemi.

That explanation notwithstanding, the Child Protection Network (CPN) has taken the matter up to give the abused lad justive.

Its coordinator for Shomolu Local Government, Comrade Toyin Okanlawon, has reported the case to the police, lamenting what, she said, she spotted as gross parental neglect of Lateef and his two sisters. “When I got wind of the incident, we rushed Lateef to the hospital to avoid the deep cuts getting infected”, he said, adding: “After his treatment, I took him to the Alade Police Station and the DPO, CSP Segun Ajao, promised to deal with the parents to serve as deterrence to others who abuse children in the name of met