A seven-year-old girl, Mazichukwu, is battling with burns allegedly inflicted on her by her aunt, whom she lives with on Josiah Aina Street, Alakuko, Lagos State.

The aunt, Mrs Loveth Ozoihu, reportedly punished the girl by beating her with a hot knife for allegedly stealing chewing gum belonging to their neighbour’s child.

PUNCH Metro learnt that Ozoihu, a trader, had sent Mazichukwu to give the neighbour the change for the goods she bought from her. The girl reportedly met the woman’s kid holding the candy and collected it from her. She was said to have returned home, chewing the gum, which she confessed to have collected from the neighbour’s kid when her aunt asked her where she got it from.

Enraged by Mazichukwu’s conduct, Ozoihu reportedly lit a gas cooker at midnight and put a knife on the burner. She reportedly placed the hot knife on the girl’s buttocks, leaving her to groan with pains. It was learnt that the Enugu State indigene later took the girl to a chemist’s shop, where a substance was applied to the injury.

A good Samaritan, who got wind of the assault, reported the case to the police at the Alakuko Division and Ozoihu was arrested. In her statement to the police, the 25-year-old suspect denied assaulting the girl, but claimed that Mazichukwu mistakenly sat on the burner.

But Mazichukwu faulted her aunt’s claim before the police, insisting that the woman inflicted the burns on her buttocks.

Ozoihu was subsequently arraigned before an Ogba Magistrates’ Court on one count of assault occasioning harm.