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Geoffrey Anyanwu, Enugu
The Enugu State Police Command has arrested a woman, her husband and a cousin of their underage maid for allegedly maltreating and abusing the maid.
The woman, Mrs. Amaka Ortolehi, was captured in a video that had gone viral on social media, slamming her underage housemaid on the ground.
Following the video, the state police command went in search of the woman and finally found and arrested her, her husband, Mr. Nkemakolam Ortolehi, said to hail from Ngor-Okpala in Imo State and Mr. Jonathan Goewan, who claimed to be the cousin of the girl, Miss Peace Goewan. Confirming the arrest yesterday to newsmen, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Ahmad AbdurRahman, described Mrs. Ortolehi’s action as “clear heartless inhumanity to man.”
In the said video, the woman was captured pulling Peace (maid) out from a blue car, lifted her up and slammed her heavily on the ground after hitting her own daughter with door of her car. AbdurRahman disclosed that the police also rescued the girl on arresting the couple. The police boss, who was enraged by the woman’s action, said: “When I viewed the viral video, it was an eyesore. I gave order to my technical officers and anti-cult team. This eventually led to her arrest of the woman alongside her husband Nkemakolam Ortolehi.
“We also arrested Jonathan Goewan, the uncle to the victim, who out of greed brought her to Enugu from Jos and probably sold her to this wicked family. “Irrationally, she held her own daughter who she had affection for but was thrusting this very girl on the ground as if she was killing a fowl,” he said.
On why the husband of the woman was arrested, the CP said: “The girl can’t be his daughter and he will allow her to be employed as a maid. It is clear heartless inhumanity to man. “Do you know that as very strong police mobile commander, a very brave Mopol, I had fear watching the video again, it shocked me. God is wonderful, this girl did not sustain any injury; God protected the poor girl. It is a miracle.
“I will charge her with all the accomplices, if by the grace of God that will serve as a deterrent to other intending couples who have underage and children as child labour and all these kind of maltreatment must stop.
“We will start hunting for them, by the grace of God, I will dedicate a line, for people, if they choose, anonymous, call and tell us of such maltreatment and abuse of children.”
Speaking about the state of the rescued small girl, the CP said that the command would hand her over to a government agency that would take care of her till her parents are traced. He said: “They will come down and tell us why they divorced this girl from them. As for the uncle, he has no satisfactory answer, so we are suspecting foul play. This is typical example of child abuse, child labour and torture.” The woman on her side was quoted as saying that it was anger that caused her action, stressing: “I don’t know what came over me. I don’t treat her in such manner before. You can enquire from her school, you can ask our neighbours. “This is not how we have been living. I am a lover of children, all come to my house. Anger put me into this. I love Peace, we have been living together for two years; this is just something that went out of the ordinary.
