An Abuja based pregnant woman, Kemi Egukole, has been arrested and is currently facing criminal charges for allegedly burning her 16-year-old housemaid’s breasts with hot water because the girl woke up late.
Daily Trust reports that the 36-year-old mother of two, severely injured the hapless girl, Hope David, an action which has landed her in the hospital because she failed to wake up on time to do her household chores even as she went to bed as late as 2am.
It was gathered that Egukole had woken up at 6am and went to the girl’s room and met her still sleeping. Instead of waking the girl up, she went to the kitchen, boiled some water and went with the scalding water and emptied the pot on the girl.
Neighbours at their Minta 1 Estate, Lokogoma, Abuja, said that Egbukole had been a notorious child abuser, who repeatedly attacked David with dangerous objects including rods.
Egukole is being investigated for child abuse and trafficking offences by the Police, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), and the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).
The Deputy Director, Protection and Investigations, NHRC,Lambert Oparah, said the commission suspected Hope was trafficked to Abuja because Egbukole told the body that the girl was handed to her by a pastor who usually supplied girls from Nasarawa State to Abuja residents, seeking house helps.
On his part, the spokesperson of NAPTIP, Joshua Emerole, said David would remain under the agency’s care until the end of the investigation, adding that Egbukole will face other charges including the violation of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act, 2015.
One of the neighbours who reported the matter to the National Human Rights Commission and the NAPTIP, said that she took the decision after seeing the serious injury inflicted on David’s breast.
The neighbour said that she was startled by the girl screaming very early in the morning as she ran out from her home.
“She ran out of the house and came to my side. Mrs. Egbukole was still trying to flog her with a mop stick.
At first, I thought Hope was attacked with pepper or cold water as in the past, until the girl screamed back again in my room and I shouted, ‘What!’ the breast has pealed already.
So I shouted and said to her madam; ‘Come, you did this thing to this girl and you still want to flog her again? I will report you to the police and NAPTIP; at that point she started begging and immediately she started telling lies,” the neighbour said.
The FCT Police spokesperson, Manzah Adjuguri, said Egbukole told the police that the pastor who allegedly brought Hope from Nasarawa was her uncle.
“It is a matter of concern to the command based on the rate of injuries that has been sustained by the girl. And for us, here at the command, justice must take its full course,” he stated.
