How 8 year-old traumatised maid was rescued

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Her name is Peace Goewam. But her living condition is a sharp contrast of her name. First, she was taken away from her parents’ home in Plateau State, at age six, without any inkling of where she was going to or what she was going to meet there.

It also still remains uncertain whether she was abducted . But there are clues that she is a victim of human trafficking and child labour.

Her offence? Her guardian, Mrs Amaka Ortolehi, from Ngor-Okpala, Imo State, accused her of making her toddler to cry.


 The video clip further showed another woman, probably a neighbour, reprimanding the woman for being rash and at the same time begged on her maid’s behalf. But she paid less attention to the intruder.

Rather, she ordered the frightened girl to come into the car. And like an obedient servant, she quietly walked into the car, with her hands on her head, unsure of the magnitude of battery she would receive from her guardian.

Crime Guard gathered that when the video clip reached the Commissioner of Police, Enugu State Police Command , CP Ahmad AbdurRahman, he ordered his technical officers, including the Anti-Terrorism, Anti Cultism and Anti Kidnapping units to comb the nooks and crannies of the state for the woman and the child.

Crime Guard learned that the Anti Cultism unit traced the woman’s house but did not meet her at home.

Rather, her landlord (names withheld) told the policemen that she had travelled to her home town. Determined to rescue the child from her guardian’s grips, the policemen were said to have located that latter’s home town and effected her arrest and that of her husband, Nkemakolam Ortoleh

A visibly angry CP AbdurRahman was said to have met with the parties. From her frail and malnourished looks, coupled with the marks of violence on parts of her body, it was obvious that eight-year-old Peace was traumatised.

Fear, was written all over her face as she stood side-by-side her guardian.

She was even too scared to speak, when asked to explain what transpired in the video. Describing the scenario in the video clip that went viral as an eye sore, the command boss said, “We also arrested Mr. Jonathan Goewan, the uncle to the victim, who out of greed brought her to Enugu from Jos and probably sold her to this wicked family.

“Irrationally, she held her own daughter who she had affection for but was thrusting this very girl on the ground as if she was killing a fowl.

“ We protected and rescued the girl and she is going be to handed over to a government agency that will take care of her till we trace her parents.

They will come down and tell us why they divorced this girl from them. As for the uncle, he has no satisfactory answer, so we are suspecting fowl play.

 This is a typical example of Child Abuse, child labour, torture and man’s inhumanity to man”. The CP assured that if those arrested were found to be into human trafficking at the end of investigation, they would face the consequences legally.

 He therefore, warned those into child labour to return such children back to their parents or have the law to contend with.

However, the woman in the eye of the storm, Mrs. Ortelehi, blamed the devil for her actions. At a point, she knelt down, begging to be forgiven.

She said “I really don’t know what came over me on that day. I have never acted that way since she started living with me two years ago. Please forgive me, I am a peace loving person. You can go and ask from my neighbours or her school if I beat her. Anger put me into this”.

Vanguard

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