An Umuahia High Court presided over by Justice Kenneth Okereke, has adjourned the ruling on a bail application over an alleged child abuse matter brought before him against an Umuahia-based societal lady and businesswoman, Chinwe Ejim for allegedly maltreating her maid, 10-year-old Ifunanya Ede in Umuahia recently.
The lady was alleged to have doused Ifunanya with scotching hot water and also inserted pepper into her private part because she broke a plate, an act that peeled her body and kept her in hospital for days.
When the case up, the presiding judge Justice Okereke, after listening to both counsels for the accused, Mr Chilaka Anyanwu and the complainant, Mrs Ngozi Obioma from the Abia State Ministry of Justice, adjourned the case till September 30, 2021.
Fielding questions from newsmen shortly after the court sitting, the Chief Press Secretary to the wife of the governor, Abia State, Mr Chika Ojiegbe said that the office of the wife of Governor was interested in the matter because it involves child abuse and inhuman treatment to a girl-child.
Ojiegbe expressed shock over the alleged maltreatment meted out to an innocent 10- year-old girl by her mistress, describing it as an evil act against fellow human being.
The Southeast zonal Commander of National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Mrs Nneka Ajie, who also spoke to journalists at the court premises, said that the agency is strongly against man’s inhumanity to man and therefore condemned the act in its totality. According to her, no one in his/her right sense would condole the alleged inhuman treatment by the accused to her 10-year-maid.
It will be recalled that The Witness Magazine was the first to break the news of the alleged inhuman treatment by a lady to her domestic servant, an act that attracted the ire of the neighbours as well as the swift intervention of the wife of the governor, Mrs Nkechi Ikpeazu.
Our Reporter said she (her mistress forced her, the victim, to drink the scotching hot water), thereby peeling her mouth and body in the process. However, the judge rejected her lawyer’s bail application and said the bail request will be considered on the next date of adjournment.
Uche Nwosu is a two time Shell Petroleum PLC award winner in the year 2000;
He won the Shell Award on Investigative Journalism and Environmental Cleanliness.
