The Police in Imo State have arrested a secondary school teacher, Mrs Blessing Emmanuel, for allegedly dehumanizing a 12-year-old girl, Amarachi Emmanuel, who was said to be her stepdaughter.
Mrs Emmanuel was arrested on Tuesday by the Owerri Police Area Command headquarters following a complaint made by an Owerri-based activist, Chidiebube Okeoma, who is also a journalist.
The victim’s plight was brought to the attention of the activist by two Owerri-based women, Eunice and Amarachi, who saw the girl selling sachet water on the streets of Owerri with her battered body.
A video clip posted by Okeoma on social media showed the girl’s body covered in various degrees of injuries, sustained from machete cuts and beatings she received from her stepmother.
Okeoma, who confirmed the woman’s arrest in Owerri on Thursday, said that he took the girl to Umuguma General Hospital in Owerri, where she is currently receiving intensive medical attention.
The activist said, “Amarachi Emmanuel is 12 years old. Her mother died in 2018, and her father married the suspect in 2019. They live in the Nekede area of Owerri. The girl and her two siblings have been out of school for years now as their stepmother forced them to hawk sachet water for her every day and make returns to her while their mates are in school.
“The girl told me that her stepmom dehumanizes them. They sell sachet water for her from morning till night and mostly go to bed hungry. The latest beating occurred because the girl cooked rice and ate without the woman’s permission. Upon her return, the woman battered her.
“I took the girl to the Owerri Area Command and got the woman arrested immediately. To save the girl’s life, I took her to Umuguma General Hospital, where she was admitted. I have also enrolled her in the Imo State Health Insurance Scheme for vulnerable children in the state.
“I have involved the National Human Rights Commission, Owerri Municipal Council Welfare Department, and the Imo State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development.”
The activist further stated that many human rights organizations have contacted him regarding the case.
“The Owerri branch of the Nigerian Bar Association has also contacted me. Various media organizations are now interested in the girl’s case. The battering of children has no place in the 21st century. The police are investigating, and my request is that the woman be arraigned. The woman turned the girl and her siblings into slaves, simply because their mother is late, and their father is medically unstable.”
Okeoma added that his intention is to get the girl and her siblings off the streets and enroll them in school.
“Currently, they live in a shanty. They will need a decent apartment once she gets back on her feet. Her lips, eyes, vagina, left leg, right hand, and stomach were battered with burns and machete cuts. Little Amarachi Emmanuel needs all of us now. Let us show her that humanity is not wicked. There are compassionate Nigerians all over.”
When contacted, the spokesperson for the police in the state, Henry Okoye, disclosed that the state Commissioner of Police, Aboki Danjuma, had ordered that the right actions be taken in the matter.