Lying on her tummy in an hospital bed located in the densely populated Ajegunle area of Lagos, was 16-year-old Onyinye Tabowel. The teenager, no doubt ,was under excruciating pains as the pillow case on which she rested her head was wet with tears.

The tears, as was later discovered by Crime guard, was not just that of pains from the burns on her back. It was that of her mother’s inability to pay the hospital bill when she eventually becomes well.
She was brought to the hospital on October 28, 2008 after she was reportedly engaged in a fight with a co-tenant inside the commonly shared kitchen.

In the process, her opponent who is five years older, lifted a kettle filled with hot water from a lit stove and poured the contents on Onyinye. Her shout of help attracted other tenants in the face-me-I-face-you building, including her mother. Her ordeal heightened when she was first taken to one of the hospitals in the area only to be rejected because they could not deposit the N30,000 needed before the commencement of treatment. 

All their entreaties and assurance that treatment should commence while they look for the money fell on deaf ears. At that point, Onyinye could no longer cry. She just stared blankly into space. At a point she managed to open her mouth and  whisper, informing her confused mother that she was running out of strength.

She was thereafter rushed to another hospital which stated same thing until the intervention of the policemen from Layeni division before treatment was administered on her.
Aside her pains, she expressed worry in this interview with Crime guard on the trauma her poor mother would be going through in order to get money requested for her treatment.

Excerpts:
       “My worry now is not the pains I am feeling inside but the trouble my mum is presently going through because of it. Look at what Gladys(the tenant that poured the hot water) has put me through. My fault was that I went looking for our broom that morning.

When I woke up that fateful morning and could not find our broom, my mother said I should go to our neighbours to ask if it was with them. Usually we use each others things like broom, for instance, to sweep . But when I got to Mama Mose‘s room, she was angry saying I should not come to ask her such stupid question. I got same response when I got to Glady‘s room as well. In the process, we started arguing, leading to a fight during which we were separated.

My mother then called me to the room and said I should pour the cooked groundnut inside a basin before carrying it to our shop. At that point, I could not find the basin and as I made for the kitchen to get it, Gladys started insulting me again, saying she would teach me a lesson I  would leave to remember all my life. She landed me a slap across the face and I responded.

In the process, she just carried a kettle filled with hot water that was on a stove and poured it on me .   As I made to run, I slipped and fell giving her the opportunity to empty the whole content on me. That is all I can remember until I found myself in the hospital.”

21 -year-old Gladys, from Kwale, Delta state, on her part, admitted to the deed but said Onyinye started it all. According to her, “ I was just sitting on my own when she came out and started abusing me. It resulted in a fight during which I mistakenly lifted a kettle on the fire with an intention to hit her with it only for the hot water in it to pour on her back”.

Meanwhile, the case as gathered, has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID), Panti, Yaba where detectives said the case would be taken to court after investigations.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/content/view/21227/128/

wonders shall never end , how can she be so heartless to pour hot water on her fellow nwanyi .
she should have fought like a real woman, tie her scarf or wrapper on her on waist and do it with pure hands
na wah oo some ppl are just living jezebels
i guess now she is very satified knowing that she has rendered her useless and her mother suffering
oh well, what ever goes around must surely come around