IZUNNA OKAFOR
A 25-year old mother, Mrs. Chinyere Ifesinachi, is currently in Police net for reportedly assaulting, torturing and battering an underage girl with pestle, cane, heated knife and other hard objects in Anambra State.
P.M.EXPRESS reports that the social media was agog over the weekend with videos of a 9-year-old girl, who was physically manhandled by her guardian at their residence in Anambra State.
According to the videos, the victim, simply identified as Idimmachukwu, was rescued by some good-spirited individuals, who saw her with heavy bag-loads of wastes that she was sent to go and trash by her guardian.
The videos also showed the maltreated girl with dangerously-swollen eyes that she could hardly see with, swollen lips, disfigured arms and shoulders, bruised and swollen heads, with different kinds of both old and fresh wounds all over her body.
When interviewed on what happened to her, the little girl, who was in serious pains at that time, said Mrs. Ifesinachi, her guardian, was the cause of her predicament.
It was gathered that the suspect, Mrs. Ifesinachi, aged 25 years, is a native of Alor town in Anambra State, but got married to an indigene of Enugu State, while both of them live in Anambra State.
The couple was said to have been delivered of a new set of twin, whom Idimmachukwu was helping them to look after, as she lives in their house with them.
It was these videos and the reports of the said maltreatment and the circumstances surrounding the incident that led to the immediate trace and arrest of the couple by the State Ministry of Women Affairs, in collaboration with the operatives of the Anambra State Police Command.
When interrogated, the suspect said she maltreated the young girl because she threw one of her twin babies on the ground, which got her provoked to beat her without mercy.
While acknowledging that she used both cane, heated knife and pestle to torture the nine-year old girl into her present condition, Mrs. Ifesinachi, however, pleaded for mercy, adding that she did not understand what came over her and why she went that far. She also claimed it was the handiwork of the devil.
“Please forgive me, it is the handiwork of the devil,” she said.
In their separate remarks, the parents of the maltreated child explained that their daughter left them in March this year to live with Aunty Chinyere Ifesinachi and her husband, because she recently gave birth to a set of twins. They said they sent their daughter to live with the couple out of sympathy, since the woman was finding it difficult to look after her new babies and also cope with her house chores.
They, however, described as very unfortunate, what they saw in just less than two months that their daughter started living with the couple.
It was also gathered that Mrs Ifesinachi is a relative to Idimmachukwu’s mother, which makes many people wonder why she could have the heart to do such thing to such an underage girl, let alone her own sister’s daughter.
Commenting on the incident, the State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Hon. Ify Obinabo, who assured the little Idimmachukwu and her family of justice, also said the little girl, who is currently in the hospital for medical attention, would not return to Ifesinachi’s family when she fully recovers.
While condemning the maltreatment as totally wrong and unacceptable, she went further to warn that anyone caught abusing any child in Anambra state must be made to face the full wait of the law, even as she appreciated everyone who contributed in one way or the other to the discovery and rescue of the child. She also advised the citizens to raise alarm anytime they notice what is not going well in their areas.
Reports have it that Nigerians in diaspora have paid off the first hospital bill of the child as she is still undergoing medical examinations and treatments in the hospital.
Meanwhile, according to the Spokesperson of the Anambra State Police Command, DSP Ikenga Tochukwu, the case has been transferred to the State Criminal and Investigative Department, from where the suspect will be charged to Court.