The Lagos State Police Command has described the condition of Mary Sunday, the 27-year-old lady who was allegedly assaulted with a pot of boiling stew and lighted stove, as a self-inflicted one.
PUNCH Metro had last Thursday reported that Sunday was allegedly assaulted by her fiancé, Corporal Isaac Gbanwuan, in August 2012 at their home at Pedro Police Barracks. She is currently at the Igbobi Orthopaedic Hospital after having spent five months in another private hospital in Bariga.
Sunday had told PUNCH Metro on February 14 that Gbanwuam assaulted her over a phone call. In a bid to escape, she had run into a neighbour’s kitchen where a pot of stew was boiling on a kerosene stove. Gbanwuam, who was in pursuit, allegedly seized the kerosene stove with its contents and threw them at Sunday.
But the state Deputy Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Damascus Ozoani, told PUNCH Metro that the allegations in Sunday’s petitions were false.
He said, “The allegation that Gbanwuam assaulted Sunday is misleading. This case has been investigated by the Provost Office of the command. The police have taken statements from Sunday, Gbanwuam and other eye witnesses at the Pedro Police Barracks. I have copies of the statements by the eye witnesses.
“One of the witnesses, who lives in the same block with Sunday, Mrs. Ayewunmi Bola, said, ‘I was in my kitchen and went back into my room to get something from the fridge. When I came back, I met Sunday in my kitchen and Isaac in the passage. Suddenly I felt hot water splash on me and I withdrew back into the room. The next I knew, Mary came out of the kitchen and ran into my room. That was when I saw that Mary and Isaac were covered in flames’.
“According to this woman, the Corporal was trying to douse the fire that was consuming Sunday.”
Ozoani also produced another statement made by another neighbor, Mrs. Edith Igene, who claimed to have witnessed the incident.
The DPPRO said, “Again, I will read this statement by Mrs. Igene as she wrote it. She said, ‘I heard a noise from my neighbour Sunday’s apartment, there was a quarrel. Sunday ran into my neighbour’s kitchen and we were telling her to come out. Instead, Sunday took the cooking pot on the stove and splashed the content on us. But when she took the stove to throw at Isaac, the kerosene poured on her and she caught fire’.
“So you can see that the two witnesses debunked Sunday’s claim.
Ozoani also described as untrue, Sunday’s claims that she had been abandoned by Gbanwuam.
He said, “They say Gbanwuam abandoned his fiancée. That is false because it means you did not care for the person. Gbanwuam had an agreement with the police at Pedro Division and he was paying Sunday’s hospital bills at the hospital in Bariga.
“Her bills were being paid in installments; Gbanwuam is yet to complete the payment. Right from when Sunday was taken to Christiana Hospital, Gbanwuam has been taking care of her. It was when she was taken away from the hospital that he last heard from Sunday. Sunday stopped picking his calls and her sister too wouldn’t speak to Gbanwuam.
“Up until the time that Sunday was taken away from Bariga, it was only Gbanwuam and his sisters that were taking care of her until her family was informed.”
“The Lagos State Police Command is not insensitive. I can tell you that at this moment, the Commissioner of Police is interested in this case and has passed instructions to the Provost to conclude investigations.”