Pregnant woman, banker
sister roast maid with hot iron over N2000
By Vincent Ukpong
Saturday, August 18, 2007
 |
Happiness
Pix: Sun News Publishing |
| |
If names are given to influence circumstance or situation,
definitely, Happiness has turned out to be a misnomer for
a housemaid, who goes by that name.
By her name, she does not deserve what befell her last Monday.
Since last Monday, Happiness Chukwunyere has not known happiness.
She is now writhing in anguish and pains in a hospital following
a brutal torture by her two female relations over N2,000 said
to have missed in the house.
Happiness, 13, lives in Ibadan, Oyo State with a woman, who
is a relation of her father.
According to her, she came to live with the woman September
last year and was made to repeat Primary Six because she did
not come with her testimonial which would lend credence to
her being promoted to a new class.
Her parents live at Obigbo, Rivers State.
The woman she is living with saw the need for Happiness to
go to Lagos and spend the long vacation if for nothing at
least for a change of environment. The holiday trip brought
her to Ojo, Lagos where she stays with a sister to her madam
in Ibadan. The holiday had been blissful until last Monday.
Missing N2,000
Chibuzor, a banker and her pregnant sister, Chizoba are the
two daughters of the woman Happiness is spending her holidays
with in Lagos. They live in Shomolu, Lagos.
According to Happiness, the female banker had sent the sum
of N58,000 to their mother. After some days, when the need
for the money arose, the woman counted the money and found
out that what was available was N56,000. She phoned her daughter,
the banker who maintained that the money was N58,000. She
directed her mother to question Happiness over the missing
money because according to her, only Happiness would know
about the missing money. The old woman did accordingly and
asked Happiness who denied knowledge of the missing money.
Road to torture
According to Happiness, after vouching her innocence, Chibuzor
and Chizoba were still not convinced. “They requested
their mother to send me to them at Shomolu for me to tell
them truth. When I arrived, after quizzing me, I still maintained
my innocence; they brought out scissors and cut part of my
hair. They stripped me and tied my two hands behind my back
and started flogging me with canes”.
According to her, after the two canes got broken into pieces
without her admitting knowledge of the missing money, they
sent a boy of about eight years old living with them to boil
water which they doused her with. “They also used hot
electric iron on my buttock, belly and lap.”
After this torture, I fainted. Instead of reviving me with
cold water, they poured hot water on me. Chizoba, the one
that is pregnant said “she has seen the person to kill
today. They later locked me in one of the rooms and used a
live wire to cross the door so that I will be electrocuted
if I want to escape. Thank God NEPA took the light and never
brought it back until I escaped” she narrated.
My miraculous escape
While I was locked up in the room, the little boy living with
Chibuzor and Chizoba was sleeping in the sitting room. Because
her hands were swollen and lacerated as a result of the cord
tied on them and the canning, she could not knock hard on
the door instead she was banging the door with her head. When
this did not produce an impact, she painfully rolled wrappers
on her bruised hands and exerted the pressure of her life
on the door. Luckily, the door opened. She ran out to the
street half naked. Not knowing where she was as that was her
first time of being to Shomolu, she asked one man how she
would get to Okokomaiko. The good Nigerian took her to the
police station.
Pitiable sight
The degree of injury inflicted on her is beyond description.
After three days in the hospital, the swollen hands are yet
to return to normal. Every part of the skin is lacerated including
the breast and upper part of the pubic region. The impression
of hot electric iron is on her left lap, buttocks and her
belly.
The two ladies from hell as at Thursday evening were in detention
at the Alade Police Station in Shomolu. From Saturday Sun’s
findings at the station, there were serious pressures from
relations of the ladies who did this evil on the police to
release the duo, according to them, so that the lady banker
with a new generation bank whose name comes in three letters,
with the word ‘Bank’ preceding the three letters
would return to her work.
As Saturday Sun visited the station as part of the routine
duty of getting to police stations on daily basis to see what
is happening, news of this gory incident filtered in and it
was necessary to hang around and get the full details without
disclosing press identity.
Relations of the lady banker and her pregnant sister were
rather more interested in the job of their lady and making
efforts that the incident involving the ladies from Mbano
in Imo State doesn’t get press attention. It was rather
surprising watching all of them gather to pester the police
not to allow the ladies get embarrassed as the ‘devil
caused the whole thing’. |
