A 13-year-old girl, Precious Edu, has accused the
brother-in law of her employer of pouring hot water on her.
Edu, who said she was denied the opportunity of
attending school after she was brought to work with Esther Amunde and her
brother-in-law, Papa, in Calabar, Cross River State, said Papa poured the water
on her after accusing her of splashing water on him.
She said after the hot water left some burns on
her neck, shoulder and chest, she was left to wallow in pains for two days
until neighbours took her to the hospital for medical attention.
Narrating her ordeal to PUNCH Metro on
Saturday on her sick bed, Edu, who is currently being treated at the Calabar
General Hospital, said she was brought to Ekorinim area of the state from Obudu
in the northern part of the state to work as housemaid on the agreement that
she would continue her secondary education.
But the situation changed as she was allegedly
denied schooling by Amunde, who insisted that Edu must not be distracted from
taking care of her little son.
Edu said, “Sometime in 2012, one woman, Amaman
appealed to my mother to release me as a housemaid to her sister, Esther
Amunde, residing in Calabar because she needed somebody to stay with her.
“When my mother accepted, it was with the
understanding that I would continue my schooling. I initially stayed with
Amunde’s mother in Obudu for three months before Amunde came during Obudu new
yam festival in August 2012 to take me to Calabar.”
Edu said on getting to Calabar, she worked full
time as housemaid until September when she expected that she would resume
school with other children.
She said she reminded Amunde to register her in a
school in Ekorinim, but she turned down the request, saying her work was to
take care of her son.”
Edu said, “Amunde refused to register me in
school insisting that my duty in her house was to take care of her (Amunde)
son.
“I was attending Girls Secondary School in my
village and I was in JS-1. Even when I was with her mother (Amunde) briefly
before coming to Calabar, she allowed me to go to school. But my boss said because
of her son, I cannot attend school.”
Edu alleged that in the course of carrying out
her duties, she was maltreated and abused by Papa.
She alleged that it was Papa that poured the hot
water on her after a slight misunderstanding.
She said, “In the morning of March 9, I unplugged
a kettle and was turning the water in it into a bucket when Papa said the water
splashed on him. He soon brought a smaller bowl, dipped it into the bucket of
hot water and poured it on me.
“When I told my boss about the incident, she
neither reacted nor did anything to the burn. It was after my skin had had
started peeling because of the burn that Amunde gave me two tablets of Panadol
to use.
“However, when I went to fetch water from the
borehole five days later, some neighbours saw my peeling skin and screamed. One
of them took me to the general hospital.”
At the hospital, a nurse, who identified herself
as Alice, said a child rights activist, Mr. James Ibor, was called and he, in
turn, alerted the police.
Ibor said, “We have made written requests to the
Cross River State Commissioner of Police to effect the arrest of Amunde and
Papa to face the law because what they have done amounts to felony.”
The activist said what they did by taking Udu
from her mother to serve as housemaid was human trafficking.
He said Udu would thereafter be taken to an
orphanage where she would eventually be taken back to her parents after the
wound had healed.
Efforts to get Amunde and Papa to speak on the
issue proved abortive.
When contacted, the state Police Public Relations
Officer, Mr. John Umoh, said he was yet to be briefed of the incident.
Culled from the punch
Man unkind if you ask me.
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