An Ikeja Magistrates’ Court, Lagos, on Monday, sentenced a 38-year-old petty trader, Vivian Onyekachukwu, to two weeks community service for assaulting her eight-year-old daughter.

The Chief Magistrate, Mrs Olufunke Sule-Amzat, sentenced Onyekachukwu after she pleaded guilty to a charge of unlawful assault.

She held that the convict should spend two hours every day for the next two weeks doing community service.

According to Sule-Amzat, the sentence will serve as a deterrent to others, who are fond of abusing their children both physically and emotionally.

She advised the convict to change her behaviour and desist from committing a crime.

Earlier, the Prosecutor, Insp Benson Emuerhi, told the court that the defendant committed the offence on Jan. 30 at 9.30 p.m. at her residence, No. 12, Sobowale St., Cole bus stop, Mosalasi, Alagbado a suburb of Lagos.

Emuerhi said that neighbours who heard the cries of the defendant’s daughter, one Chimaza Onyekachukwu, later reported the case to the police at Alakuko division and it was later transferred to the gender section.

It was alleged that the defendant usually assaults her children by beating them which always leads to bodily injuries.

“The defendant beat her 8-year-old daughter with a stick causing her to sustain grievous bodily harm on the right-hand side of her hand.

Emuerhi said the offence contravened Section 173 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 (Revised).

The defendant, who was crying profusely in court, however, urged the court to temper justice with mercy, saying she committed the crime out of ignorance and anger.

(NAN)