From Obinna Odogwu, Awka

A 37-year-old woman whose name was given as Chinelo (surname withheld) has allegedly flogged a 4-year-old child to death in Anambra.

The woman, according to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), inflicted bodily harm on the baby and which resulted in her death.

Public Relations Officer of the agency, Anthony Okafor, in a statement, said that the woman threw the baby’s corpse into the bush to cover up her alleged crime.

The statement reads:

“NAPTIP Anambra State Command arrested a 37-yr-old female suspect in Awka on the 5th of October 2022 for the offence of Child Abuse/ inflicting grievous harm on a child, an offence prohibited in Human Trafficking Act.

“The suspect named Chinelo was arrested by NAPTIP operatives in a primary school in Awka where she had earlier enrolled the victim and had gone to collect back the school fees she paid for the victim.

“While being questioned on the whereabouts of the victim, she disclosed that the victim had died.

“The suspect led the operatives of NAPTIP to the scene where she disposed of the body of the victim, on arriving at the scene the victim’s decomposing body was found wrapped in a black nylon bag where the suspect dumped her in the bush around Hezekiah Dike Crescent Awka.

“The suspect claimed that the deceased victim is her granddaughter. The victim was reported to have died on the 29th of September 2022. The suspect was immediately handed over to the police by NAPTIP to investigate the death of the victim.”

Meanwhile, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, confirmed the ugly development in a statement.

The PPRO said that the suspect dumped her victim’s body in a bush at Amikwo, Awka; saying, however, that the case would be transferred to the state CID for a discrete investigation.