By: Nwanma Ogidi
The couple were arrested in Anambra state after being accused of brutalizing their 5-year-old house help, Idinma with a pestle and red-hot knife.
Videos showing Idinma with a swollen face and various body injuries surfaced online on May 12th, prompting outrage on social media.
The couple reportedly inflicted the injuries on Idinma, who lives with them and assists in caring for their baby, after she accidentally dropped one of their newborn twins while holding them.
According to reports, Idinma was also denied access to education by her benefactors. She is currently receiving medical attention for her injuries in a hospital.
A video of the nursing mother and her husband being interrogated by community members has gone viral.
Mrs Chinyere Ifesinachi, a 25-year-old mother of twins is currently, in police custody for reportedly assaulting, torturing and battering a 5 year underage girl with a pestle, cane, heated knife and other hard objects.
The social media was outrage over the weekend with videos of a 5-year-old girl who was physically manhandled by her guardian at their residence.
According to the videos, the victim, simply identified as Idimma, was rescued by some good-spirited individuals who saw her with heavy bag-loads of waste that she was sent to go and trash by her guardian.
The videos also show the maltreated girl with dangerously-swollen eyes, swollen lips, disfigured arms and shoulders, bruised and swollen heads, with different kinds of both old and fresh wounds all over her body.
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 a new set of twins, whom Idimma 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.
Meanwhile, The Anambra State Government, in collaboration with the Police, have arrested one Chinyere Ifesinachi, for causing harm to her five-year-old house help, in Nnewi area of the state. The State’s Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare, Mrs Ify Obinabo, told journalists in Awka that the 25-year-old Ifesinachi was arrested following a tip-off. The suspect Chinyere Ifesinachi Obinabo said that the suspect, a native of Alor in Idemili South Local Government Area (LGA) of the state, used cane and pestle to beat the girl to a pulp because she threw her child on the ground.
She said that the case had been transferred to the State Criminal and Investigation Department of the Police Command in Anambra, where the suspect would be charged to court. “Immediately the incident was brought to my attention, I sent our response teams and some Non-Governmental Organisations in company of the Police, to arrest the perpetrator “The little girl was taken to the hospital where she is still undergoing medical examinations and treatments to ascertain the extent of her injuries.
She is safe now and will not be returning to her guardian’s house again. “We appreciate those who reported the case and the Police Command, for making sure that such cases are handled professional and in record time,” she said.
Commenting on the incident, the State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Hon. Ify Obinabo, who assured the little Idimma 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 weight 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 the alarm anytime they notice what is not going well in their areas.
According to her, anyone caught abusing any child in Anambra will face the full wrath of the law. Ifesinachi, while pleading for mercy, admitted that she flogged and inflicted injuries on the body of the girl. She blamed the devil for her actions. Earlier, the parents of the child, whose identities were not given, said that their little daughter was sent to live with the woman and help her after she gave birth to twins in March.
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.
Reports have it that Nigerians in the diaspora have paid off the first hospital bill of the child as she is still undergoing medical examinations and treatments in the hospital.
