A mother of four children identified as Hassana Saleh has been rescued from a room where she was holed-up in Rigasa, Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna metropolis.

Hassana was locked-up by her elder brother, Mr Lawal Saleh, in the room where she has been urinating, defecating and eating for two years.

Our correspondent gathered that police had to use a big metal to break one of the padlocks used to lock the room.

Founder of a Kaduna based Non-Governmental Organization, Arrida Relief Foundation, Mrs Rabi Salisu Ibrahim, who rescued Hassana, said the elder brother claimed to have locked her up because she was adamant about going back to her husband’s house.

According to her, “The family believes that her husband no longer loves her and had divorced her, which they said led her into depression.

“They decided to take the decision of locking her up in the room because they felt they had no other option.”

She said the victim will be taken to the hospital for proper check-up and called on well-meaning Nigerians to come to her aid.

However, speaking to newsmen at police headquarters yesterday, the victim’s elder brother, Lawal said, “I was helpless and did not know what to do because Hassana kept running away.”

Giving his account, he said, “I was away and when I came back, I was told that Hassana’s husband had divorced her and that she had run away.

“She was later found and brought back to my house, where I reside with my four wives and 41 children in Rigasa.

“I did my best to get her medication, but she kept trying to run back to her former husband. She was later married to another man, but she opted out of the marriage because she wanted to go back to the father of her children.”

He said he decided to lock her up in the room because he could no longer foot the bills for her medication, “even food to eat became a problem for me and my household.”

On the claim that he locked his sister for two years, he said, “she was locked up for seven months, not two years.”

Commenting on the condition of the room she was living in, he said two of her sisters used to bath her and clean the room once in a while.

“Everyone in the neighbourhood knows about her story and they are the ones who brought her back each time she ran  away,” he said. He prayed that she receives the treatment she requires.

Daily Trust