9 Year Old Girl Narrowly Escapes Death In Osun State

Zainab Oluwole, a 9 year old girl,
narrowly escaped death in the Oyo-
Ode area of Ede in Osun State
recently. Zainab’s mother, Adebukola
Oluwole, a nurse at the State Hospital,
Ede, was cooking dinner for her
family to break their fast when she
realised that she needed to buy some
things and headed for the market.
Unknown to her, a burglar was
lurking around the house and waiting
for an opportunity to strike. The
burglar invaded the house having
seen that the man of the house, Mr.
Raheem Kabir, had earlier left the
house before the woman also left.
Although Zainab and her sister,
Aishat, who is only 7 years old, were
intelligent enough to bolt the door as
soon as their mother left, yet this
action did not save them from the
criminal’s attack. The criminal made
several attempts to trick the two
children to open the door for him but
they refused.
Zainab, who still had plasters over her
wound, narrated what happened that
day. She said:
“The man peeped from the window
and asked my sister and I to open the
door for him but we refused. We
wanted to escape through the back
door but he heard the sound of our
footsteps and came to the back door
also. When we saw that there was no
way to escape, we decided to hide
inside the house.
“He broke down part of the wall and
crept inside through the hole. He
caught me but my sister sneaked out
through the back door and ran away
to call some of our neighbours.”
Zainab said that the man took her
around the rooms and asked her
where her mother kept money and
other valuables in the house but she
answered that she did not know.
After a futile attempt to steal money
and other valuables, the robber
threatened to kill the young girl and
later dragged her towards the bush
not far from the house.
The little girl said she started crying
and the man lay her head on a
boulder near the building and raised
his cutlass with the intention of
cutting off her head.
However, some of the neighbours,
who had rushed towards the direction
of her screaming, saw the man who
was about decapitating her. She said
she struggled with him and, broke
free. The cutlass missed the girl’s
neck but hit the left side of her
temple, leaving her with a deep cut.
The neighbours saw the girl bleeding
and decided not to pursue the fleeing
armed man but rushed the bleeding
girl to a nearby hospital where she
was treated.
Zainab’s mother said the management
of the hospital insisted that the family
must notify the police and they
reported the case at the Divisional
Police Station in Ede.
Although the mother was still in
shock, she was happy that her
daughter survived the attack.
She said, “The strange man wanted to
slaughter my daughter to avoid being
identified. I am not sure whether he is
a ritualist or a robber but I am
thankful to God for sparing Zainab’s
life.
“I am very happy that my daughter is
alive today, because when I was
alerted that something terrible had
happened in my house, I thought my
children had poured the hot food I
was cooking on their body, not
knowing that something worse than
that had happened.”

Source: Punch