Date: 2017-09-14

An Ilorin-based legal practitioner, Mr Abdullahi Suleman, has warned parents against denying their children food as form of punishment.

He gave the warning in Ilorin on Wednesday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), describing it as "wicked and inhuman."

He said some parents were fond of starving their wards as punishment for doing wrong, stressing that "such an act is against humanity and dangerous to health. "Children should never be denied food for whatever reason. It can drive them to stealing as alternative to solve their hunger.

"That is why some children can easily be lured into bad acts, as they will be enticed with things as little as sweets as food, to do what they are not supposed to do.

"Denying food to children may also cause stomach ulcer and damage the internal organs or even resort to illness for it persists."

The legal practitioner advised parents to device other means of punishing their children when they misbehaved. (NAN)