A 17-year-old orphan locked up and starved by her aunt in Jos, Plateau State, has been rescued by officials of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), following a tip-off.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) gathered that the teenager was sent to live with her aunt after her grandmother fell ill and was unable to care for her, but was maltreated, kept in confinement and left without food for days.
NHRC Coordinator in Plateau State Grace Pam, confirmed the girl was rescued following an anonymous complainant.
“The commission received information from an anonymous complainant that the girl was locked up by her aunt. Investigation revealed that the girl was truly malnourished and had scars on her hands, neck and other parts of her body.
“The marks resulted from incessant beatings she received from her aunt. We also found out that the orphan girl was never allowed to go out, but locked up in the house and not fed. She has been taken to hospital by one of our partners to ensure proper medical care,’’ Pam said.
In another incident, a nine-year-old girl living with her aunt in Plateau state was rescued on Thursday following report of severe beatings and maltreatment that nearly left her blind.
“When our staff went there, she was locked up in a zinc house where the aunt keeps her goats. The girl is looking forward to going back to her parents.
“We had to rescue her on Thursday from her aunt; she beat her mercilessly, but thank God, she did not get her blind, but got her injured in the eye. We took her to the hospital on Friday with scars resulting from serious beatings,” she said.
In recent times, there has been increased cases of confinement, torture and starvation of persons, particularly in Northern Nigeria, sometimes resulting in death and 11 year-old Margaret Joshua is among the latest casualties.
Margaret reportedly fled from insecurity in her community in Kebbi state and lived for over a year with a family in Jos, serving as a domestic help but was not enrolled in any school and became a victim of serial beatings and torture which led to her eventual death.
The State NHRC Coordinator said based on the number of scars and wounds on her body, her guardians must have subjected her to a series of torture during the period that she stayed with the family and after a recent beating, Margaret was forced to sit in a container with hot water which burnt her buttocks and she later died at the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) on Monday.
“Our attention was called to the situation on Monday by a staff in the hospital who said that an 11-year-old girl was seriously beaten and injured by her guardian, Mrs. Nneamaka Nwachukwu in Vom. The girl had scars and burns on her body.
“When some of our staff met with Mrs. Nwachukwu at the Police Station in Vom where she was detained, she confessed she had been beating her and claimed the girl used to masturbate so she was punishing her so she could stop. She claimed she did not know what used to come over her because she felt bad anytime she beats the child,” Pam said.
She expressed worry that no action was taken to take care of the girl in her condition for about 24hrs until someone saw her traumatized on the street and took her to a Police station in Kaduna state and the case has now been transferred to the Police Headquarters in Jos for further investigations.
It was further gathered that this was not the first time the Nwachukwus would assault the girl as the Police had earlier warned them against maltreating the girl and asked them to return the girl to her parents in Kebbi state.
In Kano State, Sadiya Salihu, a 33-year-old housewife and mother of four, is currently battling for her life in a hospital after she was locked up in room by her husband and starved for about a year.
Sadiya, a native of Kano state, is married to a businessman in Nguru LGA of Yobe State, Ibrahim Yunusa Bature, who is said to be a cousin to Nigeria’s Ambassador to Kenya, Yusuf Yunusa.
The frail looking woman had been locked up for months by her husband and fed only pap until she was rescued by her mother and taken to a hospital for treatment. locked up by her husband for several months amid hunger and illness.
“I was experiencing nightmares about Sadiya for long and anytime I called her husband, he gave the phone to the children and they would lie when I request to talk to her; that she was sleeping or doing something else.
“At last, I travelled to Nguru. I was greeted by the children. I didn’t see their mother, so I peeped into her room through the window and behold she was there just lying down; helpless.
“I forcefully took my daughter back home, and as you can see, she is not herself. When I enquired, I was told that the husband only fed her with pap and roasted hasbiya (dove),” Sadiya’s mother Hadiza told journalists.
Hadiza has called on the Yobe State Governor Mai Mala Buni, to investigate the matter and ensure that justice is done.
Experts say child abuse and domestic violence are among the most destructive experiences afflicting women and children in Nigeria. The wide prevalence of such violence takes an enormous toll on the lives of individual victims as well as the larger society, through innumerable behavioral, health, psychological, and economic consequences.
While many groups, organizations, and government agencies have been established to identify and prevent such violence, recent trends show that a coordinated response is required to effectively address these issues.
In yet another incident, a 67 years old man Ibrahim Ado, was rescued by the Police on Wednesday, after been allegedly locked up in a room in Taiwo road in Kaduna North Local Government Area, under inhumane condition for 20 years.
The Command Public Relations Officer Mohammed Jalige, said the Kaduna Commissioner of Police Yekini Ayoku, has ordered a full scale investigation to be carried out to unravel the true position and cause of the inhuman treatment to the elderly man.
“When we went to the scene, we found the man naked, we gave him clothes to wear and brought him out and took him to hospital for medical evaluation.
“We were made to understand that the man had children and a wife who were nowhere to be found, the people we met in the compound and the neighboring houses, we believe will assist us in getting the true position of the whole scenario.
“We will work together with the medical doctors to obtain their report on the man’s health status, what matters now is to get the man alive and make him comfortable, and we have succeeded in doing that,” Jalige said.
