A middle aged
woman, Ene Edem Okon, has been arrested by the police for allegedly
inflicting bodily harm and tying her 11-year-old daughter, Queeneth Ene
Edem, hands and legs for being wayward. She was arrested when Queeneth
appeared in her school, Government Primary School, Akim, with multiple
wounds on her chest, stomach and buttocks prompting the school
authorities to report the matter to the police at the Akim Police
Station.
The girl narrated to Sunday Vanguard
that, on February 17, she left home at Eneyo village in Akpabuyo
Local Government Area for the Maternity Junction Settlement, some four
kilometers away from home, to meet her cousin, one Blessing, but did
not return home. “We were waiting for Blessing’s friend from whom she
wanted to collect something but she delayed in coming and we waited till
night and, because we were afraid of going back home, we slept in an
uncompleted building at the Maternity Junction”, she said.
The
11-year-old said the next day, one of her friends saw her at the
Maternity Junction and told her that her mother was looking for her
with a machete after which she became afraid to go back home. “We
stayed on the road near our house and were breaking kernel to eat when
my mother sent somebody to come and catch us. That person came
pretending to play with us but suddenly grabbed me and dragged me to my
mother”.
The mother,
angry, allegedly got hold of her and used a rod to hit her all over her
body, thus leaving her with severe wounds. “She also put the kitchen
knife in the fire she was cooking and when it was hot, she placed it on
my buttocks”, the girl stated.
Mrs Ene Okon
at the Akim Police Station, appeared remorseful, stating that she was
driven by anger because Queeneth was stubborn and had formed the habit
of spending the night outside at such a tender age.
Mr Hogan
Bassey, the police spokesman for Cross River Police Command, said the
woman would appear in court after investigations are concluded.
Mr Bassey Ibor,
a child rights activist, said children’s courts in the state are not
functioning and called on the state government to fund the courts.
“The cases we
have taken to the children’s courts have suffered long adjournments
because the judges are not sitting. Government should, as a matter of
urgency, ensure that the courts are funded so that these children would
not continue to be denied of justice.”
*Burning the girls buttocks with hot knife instead of giving her sex education and telling her the dangers of early sex?
This is the
problem with some Mothers,they refuse to tell their daughters the truth
thinking they will be spoilt if they tell them but if you do not tell
them,someone might teach them practically!
.
