The police chief has zero tolerance for domestic violence and mistreatment of minors, according to the IGP, who paraded the suspect in Abuja under the representation of Bisi Okuobi, Head of Police Campaign against Cultism and Other Vices (POCACOV).
Uju Kennedy, the minister of women’s affairs, was also present.
According to Okuobi, a Chief Superintendent of Police, the police took action after the Minister of Women Affairs filed a complaint with the IGP.
She said that the lawsuit came about as a result of a widely shared film that demonstrated how the child, who had worked as a maid for the lawyer for two weeks, allegedly suffered injuries at her hands.
The child who started staying with the suspect on January 5 was allegedly subjected to “brutalization” by the suspect using an electric iron, a broken bottle, and a knife.
The event took place at Akpaka, Onitsha, in the Anambra State local government area of Onitsha North, following Okafor’s claimed accusation that the housemaid had touched her daughter.
“Recall that on February 5th, the internet was awakened by the news of a 10-year-old girl who had burns all over her body. The girl was a maid to one Barrister Adachukwu Helen Okafor of GRA 33, Onitsha, Anambra,” she said.
“She has just been a maid for two weeks, a period during which the said barrister accused the minor of fondling the penis of her six-year-old son while bathing him. On January 29th, this suspect accused her of this and proceeded to tie her hands, and mouth and flogged her.
The police official stated that the suspect thereafter handed the maid over to her aunt naked with the trauma she was made to pass through.
Upon sighting the maid with burns on the cheek, and buttocks as well as blood and water coming out from her private part, the IGP’s representative said the aunt raised an alarm, a situation that attracted passersby.
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According to Okuobi, after the incident went viral on social media, the suspect went into hiding upon realising that the Anambra State Police Command and the state government were making efforts to arrest her.
She added, “The alarm attracted passersby who brought out their phones and started recording and taking pictures and this went straight into the social space. This attracted the police of Anambra State Comand as well as the Commissioner for Women Affairs in Anambra State.
“She also wrote a petition to the Inspector General of Police, Egbetokun Kayode, who ordered that the petition be handed by the Force CID and the men of the Force CID took action immediately. When the woman discovered that the heat on her was much, I believe she advised herself to come out from her hiding place.
“As soon as she came out, she was arrested. Her statement was taken and she is here with us. She is a mother of four kids. We hope the young girl recuperates better.”
The 10-year-old victim, according to the police is currently on admission receiving treatment at the Enugugu General Hospital in Anambra State.
