Woman arrested for assaulting housemaid with hot iron

A 39-year-old pregnant woman, Mrs. Monica Momodu, has been arrested by the police for allegedly assaulting her housemaid with a hot pressing iron. The victim, Sara Egbadon, a Junior Secondary School 2 pupil, was brought from Supenu-Irua, Edo State, and had been living with the woman for five years on Abiodun Adesida Street, Oke Afa, Lagos.

PUNCH Metro was told that the 13-year-old girl was ironing Momodu’s children’s clothes on Sunday when she started dosing. Worried that the housemaid might burn the clothes, her guardian reportedly snatched the iron from her and slammed it on her hand and thigh.

The victim, who admitted that she was dosing, said she had washed the boss’ children’s clothes and had fanned the woman when there was power outage.She explained that she was exhausted by the time power was restored, but Momodu instructed her to iron the clothes.

Our correspondent gathered that one of Egbadon’s teachers noticed the injuries and reported the incident to the police at the Aswani division, leading to the arrest of the boss. Egbadon said, “My mum divorced my dad about six years ago and she is now in Benin. She left my three siblings and I with him. When he could not take care of us, he gave me to madam who is our relative.”

“On Sunday, she said it was stuffy and told me to fan her. When the electricity was restored, she told me to iron her children’s clothes. I was sleepy while ironing the clothes. She said I wanted to burn the clothes, collected the iron and placed it on my hand and thigh. “Her husband is not aware of the way she treats me. He lives in Abuja and comes home once in a while. Whenever we travel home, she is kind to me in the presence of my father. I want to go back home.”

But Momodu said the housemaid injured herself with the iron out of fear when she chided her for dosing. She added that she had wanted to take her back home but her father refused. She said, “She was sleeping and I asked her how she could be sleeping while ironing. It was that shock that led to all this. I did not know she informed her teacher. The iron fell on her. I did not do it. I did not tell her to fan me.”

Culled from Punch