The Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, has reiterated the commitment of the Nigeria Police Force to ensure diligent prosecution of the case of alleged domestic violence involving an Anambra-based lawyer, Adachukwu Okafor.
The IGP, represented by the Head of Police Campaign against Cultism and Other Vices (POCACOV), Bisi Okuobi, who paraded the suspect in Abuja, said the Police chief has zero tolerance for domestic violence and abuse of minors.
Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy was also present.
Okuobi, a Chief Superintendent of Police, said the police operatives swung into the matter after a complaint was lodged to the IGP by the Minister of Women Affairs.
She said the complaint followed a viral video showing how the minor sustained injuries allegedly inflicted by the lawyer after working with her as a maid for two weeks.
The suspect was said to have used a broken bottle, knife and electric iron to “brutalise” the child who began staying with her on 5 January.
The incident happened in Akpaka, Onitsha in Onitsha North Local Government Area of Anambra State, after Okafor, reportedly accused the housemaid of touching 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.
“She also inserted a hot knife inside her private and poured ground pepper into it as well. She then placed a hot electric iron into the socket and used it on the maid’s cheek and on her two buttocks. After causing the maid trauma, she now locked her up in her toilet from the afternoon of the incident to the evening of the following day without food.”
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.
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.
“All efforts to arrest her proved abortive because she took her heels and became elusive. The honourable minister, Barrister Uju Kennedy, a barrister herself, took the case and released a N2 million bounty on her head.
“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.
