Doctors at the General Hospital, Gbagada, Lagos, southwest Nigeria, are seriously battling to save the life of an 11-year old girl, Ita Bassey-Eno, who was allegedly set ablaze by the woman she lives with, Mrs Nkese Iroakazi, a nurse at a hospital in Surulere.
Iroakazi was alleged to have poured kerosene on Bassey-Eno before lighting a match stick to set her ablaze after the girl was said to have stolen a piece of meat from the pot.
Witnesses said the girl ran out of their apartment at 7, Adeniran Ogunsanya Street, Surulere, unto to the main road with fire all over her body as she cried for help from passers-by to rescue her.
It was gathered that someone quickly stopped his vehicle and used his fire extinguisher to put out the flame on her body.
The incident, which occurred last Saturday, was immediately reported at the Bode Thomas Police Station and the police from the station arrested Mrs. Nkese.
The little girl was rushed to the Burns and Trauma Centre, an annex of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital at the General Hospital, Gbagada, for urgent attention as the doctors in the hospital said she had suffered 95 percent burns and would take a miracle for her to survive.
Bassey-Eno’s private part was damaged, while almost all her body is burnt. The whole of her body, except her face and her feet, are bandaged, while she wears pampers because her private part was damaged.
On her hospital bed on Monday the little girl was groaning in pains while health officials described Nkese as callous woman and that she must be made to face the music.
Little Bassey-Eno, who hails from Akwa Ibom State, southsouth Nigeria, was brought from the village with another girl, Happiness Okon-Bassey, 13, to live with Nkese in June 2013 on the premise that she would send them to school, but that was not to be as the two girls allegedly performed the function of domestic servants for Nkese.
