A cleric, Prophet Elikanah Ajibade, who was charged to court on Tuesday and was remanded in prison, was accused to have physically abused his son because he attended a church service against his instruction.
According to the details obtained by Crime Reports, the boy who is now in the care of JWC staff, reportedly left home for the new year eve service on Monday, December 31, 2012, in a church which was not his father’s, though against the will of his father.
The father, a Cherubim and Seraphim prophet at Okinni, a town in Egbedore Local Government area of Osun State, had earlier told his son who is his late wife’s third son not to go to any other church for the service to usher in a new year.
It was gathered that Prophet Ajibade, in annoyance, went to the church, interrupted the service and brought David out, lashing him with strokes of cane. Efforts by members of the church, Salvation Army Church, Okinni, to rescue the hapless boy proved abortive as the father reportedly shunned their pleas.
The boy, who told the police that the father started maltreating him since the demise of his biological mother, recounted that the father in company of his stepmother and stepbrother beat him mercilessly. “When we got home, my dad, his wife and her son descended on me. They tied my hands with a rope and started beating me mercilessly”.
With tears cascading down his cheeks, David Ajibade said, “after beating me, my stepmother locked my me and my father inside and took the key away. Then my dad continued to beat me and when he was tired, he ordered that I should be rolling on hot ashes”.
While giving his account on the matter, Prophet Ajibade said the boy had been running away from home for years. He said, “he used to run away for weeks and would come back himself.On his last deed which got me angry, he ran away for one week”.
The father, whom Crime Reports learnt had never reported to the police anytime his son was missing, stated that he decided to punish the boy because of the tension and anxiety he went through and the problems he encountered while looking for the boy. He denied asking the boy to roll on hot ashes.
Confirming the arraignment in court, the Police Public Relations Officer in Osun State, Mrs Folasade Odoro, told Crime Reports that the operatives of JWC were administering proper care and medical treatment on the boy in their custody.