US based Nigerian parents starve son to death with 40 days dry fasting
A United States based Nigerian couple, Titilayo and Kehinde Omosebi, have been arrested for allegedly starving their son to death.
The Omosebis were said to have locked up their two sons, aged 15 and 11 respectively, under the guise of making them partake in a compulsory 40-day dry fast which they started on July 20.
The older son, Ayanfe, was found dead at their house in Wisconsin on Sunday. The other son was found weak and unable to talk.
Their parents have now been charged with child neglect by the Reedsburg Police in Wisconsin.
Timothy Becker, the police Chief said they had to force in their way into the room the boys were sitting because it was padlocked, after the father alerted them about his death.
“It wasn’t fast, it was neglect because the statutes make it clear that you have to provide necessary food (to children), When you lock your kids in the house and the father is the only one who can leave, it stops being a fast and starts being starvation and neglect,” Becker said.
Becker also said they found Ayanfe sitting on a chair, wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt, with his backbone and ribs very visible under his skin.
He added, “It wasn’t like the kid was healthy on Thursday and then died on Friday, his death was a long process and his parents did nothing to stop it. That’s the most concerning thing about this.”
The Wiscon State Journal reports that the 11-year old son who survived was found with a bible in his hand and a written letter signed by himself stating, “The hunger is too much. Please help me now so I may eat.
“I can’t continue in such a life with no food,” and “If I don’t get food now I’ll probably die of hunger.”
Becker said the kids’ father, Kehinde, made up a story that he was a minister of a church called the Cornerstone Reformation Ministries, a claim which was denied by Sonny Hyde, a Minister from the Cornerstone Ministry Baptist Church in Reedsburg.
