An employee of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Jude Ozuogu, 40, and his wife, Ifeoma Ozuogu, 24, have been sentenced to 13 years imprisonment for child abuse in Enugu.
Justice A. C. Ogbuabor of an Enugu State High Court sentenced the couple for maltreating their 10-year-old maid named Chinonye Nnadi in July, 2022.
Nnadi was said to have carried her mistress’ little baby to pamper her to sleep around midnight when the baby mistakenly fell to the ground at their home in Aku in the Igbo-Etiti Local government area of the state.
Though there was no physical or internal injury suffered by the baby, the couple descended heavily on the girl over the incident using different objects, including hot pressing iron, iron rod, and nails to inflict several grievous bodily harm as well as inserting pepper into her private part.
It took the intervention of neighbours who heard the girl’s cry, to rescue and rush her to the hospital for treatment. Police officers were alerted and the couple was arrested.
The Chairperson of the WomenAids Collective WACOL, Prof. Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, who brought the little girl’s plight to the public, said, her office was alerted on Friday about the case of Chinonye who sustained grievous bodily harm from Ezeugwu who she works for as a domestic help.
“This is gory and torture of a young innocent girl whose only crime is being born to a poor widow who had to give her up to live with someone in the hope that she will get an education and survive. We pray that she recovers. We demand full wrath of the law on this woman that inflicted such a level of physical injury on this girl.
“I spoke to the distraught mother of the victim. She is a poor widow living in a rural village in Aku, near Nsukka, Enugu state. It is time to eradicate child labour, ban and punish heavily anyone using children as domestic help.
“The Child Rights Act and the NAPTIP Act must be effectively enforced. WACOL will follow through to ensure that justice is done in this matter,” Ezeilo said.
The couple were arraigned before Justice A. C. Ogbuabor of State High Court 10 on three counts bordering on inflicting grievous harm, administering noxious or piousness substance, and employment of a child as a domestic worker.
Delivering judgment in the suit marked No: HE/121c/2020 between the State (Plaintiff/Applicant and Jude Ozuogu and Ifeoma Ozuogu (1 & 2 Defendants), the court convicted them. Condemning the treatment meted out to the 10-year-old girl, the court sentenced the couple to 13 years imprisonment each.
Justice Ogbuabor convicted the couple on all three counts and sentenced them accordingly. On count one – Inflicting grievous harm, the court sentenced them to three years imprisonment.
On count two – administering a noxious or poisonous substance, the court sentenced the couple to five years imprisonment, and on count three – employment of a child as a domestic worker, the court sentenced the couple to five years imprisonment.
The court, however, ordered that the period the convicts had stayed in custody from the day of arrest should be discounted.
“All sentences shall run concurrently,” the judge ruled.
