Chidiebube Okeoma, Owerri
Eleven year old Chika Nkwazema, who was bathed with hot water by her neighbor, one Mrs Promise Obinna, who is now at large with her family has asked the Inspector General of Police, Muhammed Idris, the Imo State Commissioner of Police, Chris Ezike and the state Governor, Rochas Okorocha, to ensure that the woman does not escape justice.
The woman allegedly poured hot water on the eleven-year-old on Saturday at Mbieri in the Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State, scalding her back, laps, breasts, hands, face and buttocks after her children and Chika’s siblings had finished fighting.
Before the victim’s mother, Mrs Ngozi Nkwazema, who went to the Orie Mbieri police station to report the incident could return to the compound with some policemen, the woman, her husband, Obinna, who is a tricycle driver, and their three children had packed their bags and fled the compound.
Speaking to our correspondent on Friday morning in her hospital bed in the children ward of the Federal Medical Center, Owerri, Imo State, the girl said that the woman deliberately poured the hot water on her body.
The girl who is in primary six asserted that her neighbour’s act was wicked and stated that if not for God she would have died.
The child said that all her body was paining her, adding that she had lost appetite for food.
Asked what she would want the government to do to the woman, Chika said “I want the police to jail her. I did not do her anything and wasn’t part of the disagreement. I want the number one policeman and the governor to put her in jail”.
The doctor in charge of the girl’s case, Udechukwu Chukwuebuka, told our correspondent that it will take time before Chika will be back to her feet, owing to the degree of injuries she sustained.
Asked why full treatment had yet to be commenced on the girl, the doctor said that the family had yet to pay for the medical diagnosis that was expected to be carried out on her.
The mother of the girl, Ngozi, who is a widow, said that she had used the money given to her by few spirited individuals on the treatment on the girl since the five days they arrived the hospital, hoping that people will come to her aid for other medical expenses.
The state police Public Relations Officer, Andrew Enwerem, said that the commissioner of police, Chris Ezike, had ordered the immediate arrest of the culprit.
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