I didn’t push my stepson down the storey building – Housewife begs

These are, indeed, trying times for 34-year-old mother of four who was arrested for allegedly pushing her stepson from the third floor of their apartment at No. 40, Oluwole Estate, Ogba, Lagos.  Her ordeal started Thursday, last week, after her 14-year-old stepson, Rahman, was found reeling in pains at the basement of their three-storey building. While the woman and her husband were shocked at the wound he sustained, relations of her husband rather thought otherwise.

They suspected foul play and wasted little time in inviting the police from the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, SCIIB, Panti, Yaba, to arrest their brother’s wife accusing her of masterminding the ugly incident.

Denying the allegation, the full-time housewife who identified herself as Mariam Musa, told Crime Alert: “I was arrested because my stepson accused me of pushing him from the window of our apartment located on the third floor after he jumped out of the window himself.

How could I possibly push the boy (Raman) from the window? I am surprised that he said I pushed him from the window when he jumped off himself. He was five years old when he started living with us. God in heaven knows he jumped out of the window himself.”

She continued;  “I was a caterer before I got married 11 years ago, but since then, I have been a full-time housewife. On Wednesday, at about 6am, I woke my stepson and my children up to get prepared for school. Later, my son Abudulakim, came to meet me in the kitchen and informed me that his stepbrother was not in the house.

“When my husband, Umaru, woke up, he found out that Raman, my stepson, had collected his N5,000. Throughout the day, we searched everywhere for Raman.

My husband even called his brother, Abubakar (Raman’s uncle) to know if Raman was at his place but he said no. Luckily, Abubakar called back at about 5pm and said that they had seen Raman. That night, at about 9:30, my husband and I went to my brother-in-law’s place to fetch him back home.

“That was not the first time he was running away from the house.  Usually, he spends two to three days any time he runs away from home. Any time he steals at school, some times snacks from other children’s bags and he gets caught, he will not come back home; and most times when he runs away from home, he sleeps in the mosque.

Because of what happened on Wednesday, my husband left an instruction before going out, on Thursday morning that Raman should not be allowed to leave the house. My husband left the instruction because each time Raman goes out, he gets into one trouble or another.

“Last week, he was almost lynched to death after he was caught stealing at a CD/DVD shop. So, I laid on one of the sofas keeping tabs on him. Unknown to me, while I was sleeping in the sitting room, Raman jumped out of the bedroom window. Luckily, it was only his legs that were broken.”

Some neighbours who spoke with Crime Alert said that they have seen Rahman attempting to jump through the window twice on October 29, 2015 before he eventually jumped off.”

Vanguard