A cleric, Prophet Elikanah Ajibade, who was charged to court on Tuesday and was remanded in prison, for alleged physical abuse of his son for attending a church service against his instruction, has denied reports that he asked the boy to roll on hot coal ashes.The boy who is now in the care of JWC staff, reportedly left home for the new year eve service on Monday, December 31, 2012, in a church which was not his father’s. The father, a Cherubim and Seraphim prophet at Okinni, a town in Egbedore Local Government area of Osun State, had earlier told his son who is his late wife’s third son not to go to any other church for the service to usher in a new year.
It was gathered that Prophet Ajibade, in annoyance, went to the church, rudely interrupted the service and brought David out, lashing him with strokes of cane. Despite efforts and pleas by members of the church, Salvation Army Church, Okinni, to rescue the hapless boy, the father continued his lashing.
Narrating his ordeal, David disclosed that his maltreatment in the hands of his father, stepmother and stepbrother, began with the demise of his biological mother. “When we got home, my dad, his wife and her son descended on me. They tied my hands with a rope and started beating me mercilessly”.
With tears streaming down his cheeks, David Ajibade said, “after beating me, my stepmother locked my me and my father inside and took the key away. Then my dad continued to beat me and when he was tired, he ordered that I should be rolling on hot ashes”.
But Prophet Ajibade would justify his inhuman treatment of his own son claiming he was fond of running away from home for years. He said, “he used to run away for weeks and would come back himself.On his last deed which got me angry, he ran away for one week”.
informationng.com gathered that the father had never reported his son as missing to the police thus rendering his excuse untenable. The father further stated that he decided to punish the boy because of the tension and anxiety he went through and the problems he encountered while looking for the boy but denied his son’s claim that he asked him to roll on hot ashes.
Confirming the arraignment in court, the Police Public Relations Officer in Osun State, Mrs Folasade Odoro, said that the operatives of JWC were administering proper care and medical treatment on the boy in their custody.