34-year-old Pastor Emmanuel of Labor quarters in Tumfure, Akko Local Government Area, who was presented before reporters by the police alongside 15 other criminal suspects, claims that his victim, Daniel James, had been a truant, causing him to inflict the cruel punishment.
“The 10-year-old boy committed a crime of stealing, which has been his habitual character. So, on that day, I took another dimension of punishment; I used electric iron to threaten him and it burnt him,” Pastor Emmanuel confessed.
He added that he took the kid to come and live with him after the church helped his mother find a place to live and a business to sustain herself and her elder son who is 19-year-old.
“They lived close to an Almajiri School and the boy always had a problem with the Almajiris. So, I took him to live with me. I made a mistake of not reporting him to the police. I always report his character to the mother before I decide to punish him on my own. In the church, everybody knew me to be a very disciplined man,” the pastor said.
