Court sends woman to Kirikiri for locking up house help in toilet for 21 days

A Lagos State Magistrate Court, Samuel Ilori Court 4, Ogba, on Tuesday sent a 34-year old woman, Onyinye Chukwu, to Kirikiri Prison for locking up and starving her house help, 14-year old Chizitere Nwainiga, for three weeks in a toilet.

Mrs Chukwu, who resides at 19, Ojo Street Shaha, Alismosho Lagos, had accused Chizitere of messing up the toilet and subsequently locked her up in the same toilet while she and her children made use of a second toilet in her apartment.

For the three weeks Chizitere was locked up in the toilet, Ripples Nigeria learnt that Mrs Chukwu, a mother of three from Enugu State and married to an Imo State husband, who resides abroad and an uncle of the abused girl, denied Chizitere food and water.

Chizitere while narrating her ordeal in the hands of her uncle’s wife, said the woman always punish her with rail iron and usually locks her up in the toilet.

She said before her latest ordeal, she hardly eats twice a day and that her uncle’s wife refused to send her to school, while her three children, who are age seven, five and four eat three square meal a day and attend one of the best schools in their area.

On how she survived for the three weeks she was locked-up in the toilet, she said her cries drew the sympathy of some neighbours who sometimes secretly bring food and water to her packed in nylons for her to eat and drink, through the toilet window.

She said she goes hungry and thirsty on days such help does not come.

The scars on Chizitere’s body and her looks, tell more of her ordeal than all her explanations.

Rescue came her way after one of the agitated neighbours reported her plight to Shasha CDA chairman who then called the attention of Child Protection Network (CPN) Alimosho chapter.

CPN on receiving the complaint immediately contacted Shasha Police station which sent policemen to arrest the woman and rescue the girl on Monday.

It was a drama of some sort as Mrs Chukwu, when arrested and brought to the police station began to feign madness. While rolling her eyes and moving her head sideways, she told the police she was 90 years old when asked her age.

Read also: 21-yr-old lands in court for stabbing friend in the eye over bottle of beer

She however cooperated with the police and provided some useful information about herself after the station DPO got very angry at her action and vehemently shouted at her to behave well.

The woman was later arraigned before Lagos Court 4, Samuel Ilori Magistrate Court Ogba, where the presiding magistrate on attachment granted her N1million bail with two Surtees in like sum.

The court said one of the Surtees must be a notable traditional ruler in Lagos.

Mrs Chukwu was subsequently sent to Kirikiri Prison, Lagos pending when she meets up with her bail condition.

Also, her arraignment in court did not go without another drama as Mrs Chukwu, a graduate, who did her youth service in Lagos in 2008 and has lived in the state for over eight years said she cannot understand English Language and demanded for an interpreter, which the court provided for her.

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