A 14-year-old housemaid, Mary Akinnifesi, has been arrested in Ondo town, Ondo State, for poisoning her 63-year-old boss, Alhaji Nasir Akinlosotu. Mary was living with the family in their home until that day when the man’s wife asked her to prepare beans for them.

When she was through, she decided to put rat poison in the husband’s food, claiming in her confessional statement that he usually beat her when she committed an offence.

The man, who later handed the maid over to the police, said he was eating the food and had swallowed a part when he suddenly realized that the taste was strange. According to him, he later vomited the food and questioned Mary on the strange taste, and she confessed to have added rat poison to the food.

She was said to have taken the action against her master because she was rebuked for messing up the living room with water a night before. Mary who was engaged by the victim’s wife, had stayed with the couple for two years and had never shown such a behaviour until that night. .

Narrating how he escaped death, Akinlosotu described it as an act of God. He explained that he had no inclination that the suspect could go to such an extent as to want to kill him because he rebuked her for being careless by pouring water on the floor in the sitting room.

Akinlosotu, however, said he would not press charges. “Since God has delivered me from death, why should I fight again? I have left everything to God,” he said. Ondo State Police Command image maker Femi Joseph confirmed that Akinlosotu had applied formally to withdraw the case.

“This is our predicament: Once the complainant says he is not interested in pressing charges, the state is handicapped because the court will dismiss the case when there is no complainant”, he said. .

Joseph quoted the victim as saying the reason he lodged the complaint with the police was to expose the devilish activities of housemaids and the need for people to always be vigilant when dealing with them.