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From George Onyejiuwa, Owerri
The Imo State Government on Thursday filed murder charges against a 38-year-old businesswoman, Juliet Igwe, for allegedly burning her maid’s private region, forcefully immersing the girl’s hands in boiling water and scalding her body with candle wax.
Counsel to the state government, Fidelis Igbo, disclosed this before Chief Magistrate B.U. Adikaibe in Owerri when he announced his appearance on behalf of the state Ministry of Justice.
Recall that the president/founder of Stand for Humanity Foundation, Mr Chidiebube Okeoma, had rescued the victim in Osina, Ideato North Local Government Area of the state in December.
At the resumed court session on Thursday, counsel to the Ministry of Justice told the court that the state had filed murder charges against the accused at the Urualla High Court, sitting in Owerri, the state capital.
Upon being shown the court documents filed at the High Court against the accused, the Chief Magistrate struck out the matter from her court, giving legal liberty for Igwe’s arraignment at the High Court on 26 February on the murder charges.
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The Chief Magistrate had at the last adjourned date in December ordered the accused’s remand in the Owerri Correctional Centre until the report of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) was ready.
The Chief Magistrate, who said the penalty for the alleged crime is life imprisonment if convicted, disclosed that her court had no jurisdiction to try the matter.
Okeoma, who produced the five-year-old victim in court on Thursday, told journalists that his organisation was working assiduously with the state government for the total recovery of the minor and justice for her.
Mr Chidiebube Okeoma, a journalist and founder/president of Stand for Humanity Foundation, said the wife of the governor, Chioma Uzodimma, who visited the minor at the hospital on Wednesday in Owerri, had assured that the victim would be fully rehabilitated and that justice would be done.
With the latest development, the accused’s arraignment and trial by the state government are to begin on 26 February at the High Court of Urualla sitting in Owerri, the state capital.
