SaharaReporters learnt the victim is a niece of the man’s wife, who according to one of the residents, is from Uli in Anambra State.
An eight-year-old girl identified as Sochima is currently carrying a bandage on her head and she is suffering from pain inflicted on her by one Mr. Uchenna Nkemdi, whom she is living with as home help in Oyigbo, Port Harcourt, River State.
SaharaReporters gathered from some residents of the area that Mr. Nkemdi, a labourer who currently goes to Oyigbo Police Station construction site, is from Ntalakwu in Abia State but claims to be an uncle to Sochima whose parents are said to be from Uli in Anambra State.
For a long time, Nkemdi, a father of four children promised the parents to send the little girl to school but turned her into a full-time maid who does virtually all house chores and prepares and takes his own children to school, while she goes to school once or twice in a week.
Residents who described how the man beats Sochima almost on a daily basis with sticks and any other thing he could lay hands on said many people have tried to stop Nkemdi from abusing the minor but he boasted that “she is stubborn and must be handled with an iron hand,” telling those who tried to caution him to “mind our business.”
“It will interest you to know that two persons confronted him about his actions against the girl but he was boasting and blackmailing the minor. He said that the parents of the girl had already told him of the girl’s bad attitude and that he should handle her with an iron hand,” a resident told SaharaReporters.
SaharaReporters learnt the victim is a niece of the man’s wife, who according to one of the residents, is from Uli in Anambra State.
But the wife, a petty trader at Eke Oyigbo Main Market, whose name could not be ascertained, has been watching her husband, repeatedly brutalise the girl and deny her education.
SaharaReporters learnt that officials of Amnesty International reported the alleged assaults to the police, who sent officers to arrest Nkemdi.
Nkemdi, however, resisted arrest and had to be forced by the policemen.
When SaharaReporters contacted the spokesperson for the state police command, DSP Grace Woyengikuro Iringe-kokoppro, she replied in a text message, saying, "I will get back to you sir".
A few days ago, a 14-year-old girl reportedly fell from the top floor of a four-storey building in Onitsha, one of the biggest commercial cities in Anambra State in an attempt to avoid being flogged by her guardian.
The girl who was identified as Ijeoma Nwafor was a home help to one Nnenna Onwanna, who was allegedly accustomed to abusing the girl at every opportunity.
It was reported that Ijeoma’s mistress was beating her when she fell from the building. She , however, survived and was taken to the hospital for medical attention.
Many boys and girls have lost their lives or got maimed by their masters and mistresses, some of who seem to take joy in abusing and brutalising them at will.
According to Nkemdi’s neighbours, if nothing is done soon to rescue Sochima, he will kill the little girl.