On Tuesday, August 22, a 14-year-old girl named Desola Adeoye killed herself in the Shogunle neighbourhood of Lagos.
According to the Vanguard, Desola swallowed insecticide to prevent being tortured after allegedly enduring unspeakable abuse at the hands of her father, Sunday Adeoye, and his wife.
She supposedly felt intimidated by her stepmother when she returned home from summer school, which led her to resolve to end her life. She allegedly warned the woman that when her father came home, he would attack her.
Desola snuck out of the house and drank the insecticide that was kept there because she was afraid of the danger. According to reports, she was taken to a nearby private hospital where she passed away.
When her father returned, he hurriedly removed her dead body from the hospital and brought it back to the family home with the idea of secretly burying her. However, after being informed by nearby residents, police officers from the Shogunle Divisional Police station were able to halt it.
A neighbor who corroborated Desola and her siblings’ reported torturous treatment informed the magazine;
“When the late Desola and her two younger sisters erred, their biological father and stepmother frequently subjected them to domestic violence.
“Shogunle Community Development Association in Oshodi, CDA, had, on numerous occasions, cautioned their father and stepmother to stop the physical abuse they had unleashed on their children, especially late Desola Adeoye.”
Mr. Ebenezer Omejalile, the Chief Operating Officer of the Advocates for Children and Vulnerable Persons Network, has urged the Lagos State government, the Nigerian Police, and the Nigerian Bar Association to rescue the two other children still in the couple’s custody and to seek justice for the late Desola.