By ‘kanmi AKINLADE, Investigator Correspondent, Northern zone/
BENUE- THERE couldn’t have been a more appropriate adjective to describe a housewife and mother of four who inflicted body injuries, locked up a 10 year old boy for days without food and water for allegedly stealing a portion of her pot of soup other than evil mother.
The evil mother identified as Chioma Johnson sources said, was already telling officials of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in persons and other related offences NAPTIP in Benue State for throwing her conscience to the dogs, brutalized a 10 year old nephew of her husband living with them and locked him up in their Zakibiam Street, Wadata residence, Makurdi, for days without food and water.
Findings showed that the Abia State born Chioma Johnson had been maltreating the boy for the past three years, denied him education while her children go to school, prevented from associating with her children and those in the neigbhourhood and locked up in a room for reason best known to her until the bubble burst recently.
According to multiple sources at the NAPTIP office, there were traces of torture marks all over the body of the child including having his hair callously and unprofessionally shaven with razor blade.
Reacting, the Benue state NAPTIP Commandant, Gloria Bai, said the upon complaint, the woman was arrested but added that she had been granted bail because she was a nursing mother stressing, “The command received a complaint from a reliable informant about a case of child abuse at Wadata behind Family Health Care, Makurdi. Officers of the command immediately swung into action and a 10-year-old boy was rescued and the suspect arrested.
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“The suspect, Mrs. Chioma Johnson, is a nursing mother who hails from Abia State. The suspect’s husband is an uncle to the victim. Preliminary investigation revealed that the victim has undergone physical abuse; there are lots of scars on the victim’s body and also, a medical evaluation showed that in addition to the physical abuse, the victim was malnourished. The case is still under investigation.
But a visibly angry rights activist, Ukan Kurugh who spoke to CrimeWorld magazine online said, “This wicked woman who claims to be a school teacher and a nursing mother denied the boy education while her four biological children attended school, she not only did that, she also locked up the little and innocent boy inside the house at will and prevented from associating with her children and those in the neighbourhood.
Apart from that, she inflicted injuries on him because if you look at the child, he looks malnourished because she was not feed well like her biological children.”
Continuing, the concerned activist added, “A careful look at his head showed that the woman used razor blade to callously and unprofessionally shave the boy’s hair and thereby inflicted cuts on his scalp, there was also scars of canes arising from constant flogging on his buttocks.
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The innocent boy even confessed that most times when she used broken razor blasé to shave him, she melts nylon and poured it on his bruised head and used heated kitchen knife to burn his skin,” adding,
“One of the times neigbhours intervened she rained abuses on them claiming that since the boy was brought from their village to live with them he had been dipping his hand in her pot of soup to steal piece of meat. She ensured that the boy never left the house even when she goes out with her children. And sorrowfully, the poor boy would stay by the window and beg passersby for a sachet of water to drink and food to eat.”
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