BY AGNES NWORIE, ABAKALIKI
Two teenagers, who are natives of Okposi Ohaozara in Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, have petitioned the Commissioner of Police in the state, Aliyu Garba, accusing their mother, Mary Obasi-Udeh, of exposing them to sexual assault and other forms of abuses for selfish ends.
The teenagers, Chisom and Munachi Umejesi, aged 16 and 14 respectively, were said to have earlier reported their mother at the Ebonyi Family Law Centre.
However, it was learnt that the woman refused to honour the summons by the centre, thereby prompting their latest decision.
The teenagers claimed that their estranged mother intimidated them with police officers who allegedly got their aunt arrested for providing them shelter when they ran to her for safety.
In the petition, the complainants accused their mother of constant abuses like stripping them naked while flogging them, putting pepper in their eyes, pouring hot water on them, and beating them with dangerous items like cutlasses and high-heeled shoes.
They also accused the estranged mother of eight of depriving them of their father’s love by keeping them out of his reach. Among other things, they alleged that she always starved them for days by locking them up in a room as punishment.
They explained that the woman conscripted them into sexual abuse by giving them to her male friends as sex slaves against their wish.
Munachi disclosed that she had been raped several times like a dog by her mother’s numerous male friends with the most recent one resulting to pregnancy.
On hearing that she had conceived, Manuchi said that her mother shielded the man from her pregnant daughter.
According to the two girls, they eloped from home to their aunt’s house (their mother’s younger sister) for refuge at the height of their journey. The enraged mother was said to have reported her sister to the police, alleging that she kidnapped her children.
Thereafter, they said that they were locked up and left to starve for days. They also claimed that some police officers supported their mother by refusing to investigate and prosecute her.
Chairman of the Ebonyi State Family Law Center, Elizabeth Nwali, explained that the centre, on behalf of the children, petitioned the Commissioner of Police, following their mother’s refusal to desist from infringing on their rights.
She said, “Earlier in November, the teenage petitioners came to our office at the Family Law Center, Abakaliki and reported a case of child abuse, assault and defilement, among others, against their mother, Mary Obasi-Udeh. In our usual way as a family resolution center, we summoned the woman to hear her version of the story and to possibly resolve it for them but the woman bluntly refused to honour the invitation. Rather, she used the police to allegedly intimidate the children and arrested their aunt for accepting them in her home.
“As I speak to you, the woman and some of her family members are in police custody because she accepted Mary Obasi-Udeh’s children, who are her nieces, for refuge in her home.
“This petition is aimed at telling the CP the true situation of things about the matter to ensure that appropriate actions, by the police, geared towards protection of the children’s rights in accordance with the Domesticated Child Rights Law 2010, are taken.”
“I think that the woman’s actions were as a result of frustration. She should allow the eight children access to their father from time to time as they requested to reduce her stress. She should be made to understand that in accordance with the Nigerian constitution, which supercedes every other law, whether bride price was paid or not, children belong to the biological father,” she added.
Efforts to speak with the accused mother and her Lagos State-based ex-husband, Victor Umejesi, at the time of filing this report, were not successful.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the Command, DSP Odah Loveth, said that she would be able to react to the allegations against the woman after investigating the matter.
“Police can’t just pass any comment; we will react to that when we are done with investigations,” she said.
