An 11-year-old girl who was being maltreated by her guardian in Asaba, and tried to commit suicide has been rescued. The girl who was seen with injuries all over her body especially her hands after several beatings and torture by the woman she lived with – was rescued by Due Process Advocates (DPA) Warri, Delta Chapter led by Edafe Joshua.
A well meaning Nigerian who saw bruises on the girl’s body raised an alarm before steps were taken to reunite her with her family. The advocate said;
“The girl in this picture was passing by my shop Friday last week and i noticed that she has series of injuries on her head and was look very malnourished. I beckoned on her to come and i asked her what happened to her head and she started crying.
“I equally noticed several other injuries all over her body especially her hands. i asked her who she was staying with and she said her aunty.
“I asked her whether her aunty maltreats her and she said yes and she want to go back to her parents in Warri but doesn’t know how to go about it. On further inquiries, I discovered that this aunty of hers is not married and beats her over nothing and equally starve her.
“My first move was to locate the parents of the girl, whom she said live in Warri. But she could not give a coherence address of where her parents live in Warri. The description she gave was onl. “Enter keke to Airport road- enter another keke to God’s grace church – enter a place fenced with plank and ask of Deborah’s parents.” She gave her mother’s name as Rebecca and her father’s name as Isaac.
“Upon further interview of the girl, she said that she is tired of staying with the woman and would prefer to die because of the ill treatment and abuse from the said madam. She said she tried to commit suicide and drank hypo but on realizing what she had done, she quickly took palm oil to neutralize it.”
The girl’s poor parents who gave her out as a maid were later located in Warri as the girl was reunited with her family.