Outraged neighbours have urged the Lagos State Government to rescue a 13-year-old boy from his father, a Lagos based security guard, who subjected the boy to cruel assault for allegedly stealing, KUNLE AKINRINADE reports.

Sodeeq Owolabi ran out of his father’s apartment at dusk last Sunday, panting like a sprinter who had just breasted the tape. But the teenager was not a runner. Rather, he had voted with his feet to escape his father’s fury, but not without a bloodied head, swollen face and injuries on his body.

Neighbours at the residence of Sodeeq’s father at No 22, Abiodun Aboyade Street, off Olaniyi Street, New Oko- Oba, Abule Egba, a Lagos suburb, said it was not the first time the boy would be manhandled by his father, except that this time, it came in a manner that the 13-year-old boy did not foresee. It was shortly after some elderly neighbours had pleaded with his father to forgive him for ‘misbehaving.’

Sodeeq rushed out into the waiting arms of stupefied neighbours, who were alarmed by the action of his father, fingered as the architect of his own son’s problem. The outraged neighbours confronted the boy’s father for subjecting his son to such brutal assault in the name of reprimanding him.

Neighbours told our reporter that the teenager had lost his mother when he was six years old and that he is the only child of his father Owolabi, a.k.a. Gbewondebe.

Concerned neighbours described Sodeeq as a cool-headed teenager until he started pilfering after his father subjected him to cruel punishments, including sending the boy out in the cold.

“Sodeeq used to be an unassuming boy. He does not talk much. He, however, launched into petty stealing shortly after his father started sending him out in the cold for erring.

“The boy would sleep in a furniture workshop in front of his father’s residence for days without food.

“The emotional torture Mr. Owolabi subjected his only child to is the reason the boy began to steal in order to eat and take care of himself after his father stopped him from going to school in JSS 2,’’ a neighbour who identified herself simply as Darasimi said.

On the day the incident occurred, Sodeeq had allegedly returned home with a phone five days after he was sent away by his father. The father became angry when the boy could not give a convincing explanation on how he came about the phone.

While Owolabi tried to reprimand the boy, elderly neighbours were said to have intervened and pleaded that he should take his son in and reprimand him quietly.

Minutes after the neighbours dispersed, however, Owolabi, a private security guard, dragged Sodeeq into the toilet and locked him in.

He later became angry as the boy raised the alarm, and smashed his head on the water closet in the toilet. He was also said to have subjected him to brutal assault with wooden items, leaving him with injuries on his head, body and legs.

Another female neighbour, who spoke in confidence, said Sodeeq’s upbringing was weird, blaming it on his father.

She said: “Sodeeq’s father caused everything. There is no child that does not misbehave at one point or the other.

“The man smokes cannabis, and he usually sent his son to buy the substance for him in the neighbourhood, thus exposing his son to vices.

“Also, he is fond of sending the boy out of his room whenever the boy did anything wrong and when he brings his girlfriends home overnight. Hence, Sodeeq started sleeping outside in the cold for days.

‘’Besides, he will not feed the boy whenever he errs. He maltreats his son and has instilled fear in the boy to the extent that Sodeeq is terrified by his father’s presence.

“Most times, it is we neighbours that give Sodeeq food to eat and also shelter him. We are afraid he might kill the boy one day and flee this community.

“On Sunday (March 29), he accused the boy of returning home with a phone after sending him away.

“He started beating the boy and the boy ran into the toilet where he locked him.

“When the boy raised the alarm that his father had locked him in the toilet, he went into the toilet and smashed his head on the water closet and brutlised his own son like a soulless person.

“However, Sodeeq managed to escape from his father bloodstains from the injuries he sustained and with wounds all over his body.’’

Some of the neighbours interviewed urged the Lagos State Government to take custody of Sodeeq to prevent his father from killing him through brutal reprimanding.

“We are waiting for the Lagos State authorities to rescue Sodeeq from his highhanded father and rehabilitate him, because he beats the boy with sticks, flat end of cutlass, and once smashed a stool on his head, causing the boy to bleed for days.

“We fear that Sodeeq might lose his life from the effect of the brutal assault of his unrestrained father, who has also stopped the boy’s education at JSS 2.

“For your information, there is a man suspected to be homosexual in this neighbourhood, and one of these days, Sodeeq might end up being sodomised if his father continues to send him out of his apartment as punishment for misbehaviour.”

Responding, Mr. Owolabi claimed that Sodeeq was punished for misbehaving and stealing.

He said: “Sodeeq used to be a level-headed boy when I brought him to join me after his mother died.

“However, barely one year after he moved in with me, he started misbehaving. It is not true that I don’t take care of him. I take care of his feeding.

“And those who told you that I maltreat Sodeeq are the people who plot against me in my neighbourhood.

“My son has been stealing from people all kinds of items, including phones. He would leave my residence and sleep outside whenever I reprimanded him.

“At times, he sleeps in the house of neighbours and ran errands for them.’’

He explained that he decided to beat his son last weekend after he could not explain how he came about a phone belonging to an unnamed person.

He said: “What happened was that Sodeeq went into a neighbour’s house to steal.

“He stole a phone from a neighbour and ran outside when I reprimanded him.

“Those who blamed me for not raising him well or reprimanding him when it mattered are now the ones reporting me to you, saying that I have not taken care of him very well.

“Sodeeq’s stealing habit and recalcitrant attitude have earned me shame in my neighbourhood.

“He is my only child. He used to have a younger brother, but he died a long time ago.

“I work as a security guard in a residential apartment to earn a living and take care of Sodeeq.

“He used to attend a private secondary school until he strated misbehaving.

“I am even contemplating asking the police to arrest people in whose house he sleeps whenever he fled from home to avoid being reprimanded.’’ (The Nation)