SS 3 pupil commits suicide after alleged assault by half-brother

When the next West African Senior School Certificate Examination eventually begins, Sherifat Sulaimon, will be missing in action.

The 21-year-old SS3 pupil reportedly committed suicide last Sunday after she was allegedly beaten by her stepbrother, Moliku Sulaimon, whom she lived with at Olorunshogo Iyewa, in the Isawo area of Ikorodu, Lagos State.

Neighbours, who spoke to Sunday PUNCH, accused Moliku of serially assaulting Sherifat, noting that she became frustrated and took Sniper after he repeated the act last Sunday morning.

It was learnt that Sherifat and her two siblings started living with Moliku after their mother left the family, following their father’s death. Moliku, the eldest child in the family, is in his 40s.

Our correspondent gathered that Sherifat helped Moliku’s wife to get some loaves of bread she would sell at a bakery within the neighbourhood and placed them somewhere in the apartment.

She incurred Moliku’s anger when rodents tampered with one of the loaves, a resident said.

“She had been living with him since their father died. She was a kid then. Her siblings used to live with him too. They left out of frustration because he always beat them,” the neighbour, who spoke on condition of anonymity, disclosed.

He stated that there were marks of canes on Sherifat’s body, adding that Moliku hurriedly took her corpse to their hometown in Ijebu, Ogun State, where it was buried the following morning.

He said, “After she returned from the bakery on Sunday morning, he beat her again because rats ate part of a loaf. It was out of frustration that the lady took a poison. She died on arrival at the hospital and he quickly too her corpse to their hometown in Ijebu for burial. He knew he would have been queried if the police inspected the body and saw the marks. Neighbours were bitter that Sherifat died that way without any action taken against the man.”

The chairman of the community development association, Mr. Adekunle Adeigba, said he was not aware of the assault until the incident happened.