A yet-to-be-identified woman has stabbed a baby girl to death in Imo State, South-east Nigeria.
The suspect was said to have walked into a compound and stabbed the baby.
The incident happened on 28 May at Works Layout, Owerri, the state capital.
A video clip which has gone viral on social media showed the victim being interrogated by angry residents.
“Who be this girl? You carry knife kill person, kill small baby?” a voice yelled at the lady in pidgin English.
In the clip, the victim, about five years old, was seen being carried out of the compound by a woman believed to be her mother.
In tears, the mother of the victim appeared to be taking the child to a hospital.
‘I was instructed by the Holy Spirit’
The angry residents descended on the suspect, a young lady in her late twenties — beating her up and dragging her violently.
She was clad in navy-blue jean trousers and a pink shirt with white stripes.
Asked why she committed the act, the light-skinned lady said God sent her to kill the child.
“It is God in Heaven that sent me. The Holy Spirit asked me to kill her,” she stated.
She added: “Take me to the police station. If I get there (police station), they should shoot me, do whatever they want with me.”
When contacted on Friday, the police spokesperson in Imo State, Henry Okoye, confirmed the incident but did not give the suspect’s identity.
Mr Okoye, an assistant superintendent of police, said the young lady had been arrested, saying she would face the law after the investigation.
“The young lady was reported (to the police) by a public-spirited resident of Works Layout that she used a very sharp knife to stab the child repeatedly on her stomach, the young girl was rushed to the hospital, but she was confirmed dead on arrival by doctors on duty,” the police spokesperson said.
