Father Causes Amputation Of 10-Year-Old Son’s Legs Over N50 Biscuit
A 10-year-old boy, Sadiq Sani, has lost both legs after his father tied him with a rope and locked him up for days over a N50 biscuit, leading to severe infection and eventual amputation.
The case came to light after human rights organizations intervened following reports of the incidents.
According to testimonies in an interview with SOGOJI TV and monitored by Northern Nigeria Hub, the boy had not been given food and took the biscuit out of hunger. His father allegedly tied his legs with a rope, locked him inside a room as punishment and denied him food and care, leaving him in a degrading and inhuman condition.
The mother, Halimatu Abdurrahman, who is separated from the father, said her husband had taken custody of the child and subjected him to repeated denial of food and confinement.
The confinement went on for days during the Ramadan period before a relative heard the boy groaning inside the locked room, broke the door open, and found him tied and rotting, before rushing him to Samunaka Hospital.
Doctors at the hospital said the boy’s legs had already rotted with flesh peeling off due to prolonged tying and lack of circulation and treatment, and that they could not handle the case. The family said they struggled to raise money for treatment at a bigger hospital in Kaduna and went to mosques seeking help without success.
With the intervention of human rights advocates including Aisha Yahaya Hayani of the Aisha Humaira Foundation and Rabi Almayau of the Freedom for Humanity International Foundation, the boy was taken to a specialist facility where doctors said both legs had to be amputated to save his life.
“Looking at this one, it has been severed and cut off. Looking at this other one too, it has been severed and cut off. All because of a fifty-naira biscuit,” the SOGOJI TV reporter said, describing the boy’s condition.
The mother confirmed that the father has been arrested and remanded in prison pending while calling on the Kaduna State Government and well-meaning Nigerians to provide sustained medical, psychological and financial support for the boy’s rehabilitation.
