A pregnant housewife in Bauchi State, Nigeria, has been arrested by the police for beating her five-year-old stepdaughter to death.
The suspect, Khadija Adamu, 18, allegedly beat the child with a USB cord after she defecated on her body.
Adamu, who is four months pregnant with her second child, told journalists that she regretted her action and claimed it was not intentional.
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“How can I kill a child who was like my child? Even though she was my co-wife’s baby, she was also my daughter because she was my husband’s child,” she said. “What happened was a mistake, not a deliberate intention to kill.”
Adamu said she only wanted to correct the child and didn’t know she would die.
“I didn’t know she would die. I only wanted to correct her,” she said. “She didn’t die that day I beat her. It was the next day that she died. I feel very sad and unhappy that she died.”
Adamu is asking for leniency, saying that everyone has forgiven her.
