A 64-year-old man, Joseph Ojo, reportedly set 5 of his stepchildren on fire and has explained why he did so.
While he was being paraded at the state headquarters of the Nigerian Police in Akure, Ondo State, Ojo stated that his stepchildren usually join their mother in beating him.
The father revealed that despite providing the money for food, his wife and stepchildren had a practice of starving him.
He claimed that the issue enraged him, so he poured gasoline from his chainsaw (a felling machine) in the children’s room and lit it on fire.
At his home in Fagun, Ondo town, the seat of Ondo West Local Government, Ojo had set fire to the room where the stepchildren were sleeping on Saturday.
Three of the five children had died as a result of their injuries, according to Funmi Odunlami, the State’s Police Public Relations Officer.
Odunlami further told that before performing the act, Ojo had kept his twins in a different room.