22 Year Old Stepmum Cuts off her Stepson’s Genitals

A stepmom, identified as 22-year-old Bara’atu Rabiu, has been arrested and remanded in police custody for cutting of her step son’s genitals.

According to the Punch , Bara’atu has been married to her husband for 7 years and because she was unable to give him a child, her husband took a second wife who bore him a son.

Upset, Bara’atu took the newborn boy to the back of their home in Kuta town, Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State, and chopped off his penis with a sharp knife. His cries alerted the neighbourhood who hurried over and found the woman with the bleeding boy. The police was alerted.

The baby, Buhari, survived the attack and was taken to the Accident and Emergency Ward of the Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida Specialist Hospital, Minna, where a procedure to enable him pass urine was done.

Punch adds that Bara’atu, married to her husband as a child herself, was charged to court on Monday June 27, on one count of attempted homicide before a Chief Magistrate’s Court in Minna, and has been remanded in the Minna Medium Security Prison.

Here’s what the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Bala James, said:

“The woman used a sharp knife to cut through the genitals of the one-month-old baby. She had been married to her husband for seven years without any child. So, out of pressure, the man decided to marry a second wife.

When the second wife had a baby, she became angry and frustrated. She thought the best thing to do was to kill the child.”

Meanwhile, the Head of Department, General Outpatient Ward of the hospital, Dr. Ahmed Mohammed, said the possibility of the child regaining use of his penis is slim.

Here’s what Mohammed said:

“He is doing well – health-wise. He survived the attack. However, there is no assurance of the penis getting back because all the tissues were dead when he was brought into the hospital. We just had to conduct a surgery for him to be able to pass urine.

Medically, for him to regain the use of his manhood will be difficult.  If the team that was supposed to work on him had been around immediately, maybe the situation would have been different. For such a case, you need a general surgeon, a neurologist and a plastic surgeon. But these were not available. His future right now is in the hands of God. Another possibility is if there is artificial attachment.

I really pity the boy’s condition. I cannot imagine that somebody will do this to a baby. It is better for the child to die than for him to be in this condition.  Even if he survives, what purpose will he be living for?”