A 13-year-old girl, Precious
Edu, has accused the brother-
in law of her employer of
pouring hot water on her.
Edu, who said she was
denied the opportunity of attending school after she
was brought to work with
Esther Amunde and her
brother-in-law, Papa, in
Calabar, Cross River State,
said Papa poured the water on her after accusing her of
splashing water on him. She
said after the hot water left
some burns on her neck,
shoulder and chest, she was
left to wallow in pains for two days until neighbours
took her to the hospital for
medical attention. Narrating
her ordeal, Edu,
who is currently being treated at the Calabar General
Hospital, said she was
brought to Ekorinim area of
the state from Obudu in the
northern part of the state to
work as housemaid on the agreement that she would
continue her secondary
education. But the situation
changed as she was allegedly
denied schooling by Amunde,
who insisted that Edu must not be distracted from taking
care of her little son. Edu said,
“Sometime in 2012, one
woman, Amaman appealed
to my mother to release me
as a housemaid to her sister, Esther Amunde, residing in
Calabar because she needed
somebody to stay with her.
“When my mother accepted,
it was with the
understanding that I would continue my schooling. I
initially stayed with
Amunde’s mother in Obudu
for three months before
Amunde came during Obudu
new yam festival in August 2012 to take me to Calabar.”
Edu said on getting to
Calabar, she worked full time
as housemaid until
September when she
expected that she would resume school with other
children. She said she
reminded Amunde to register
her in a school in Ekorinim,
but she turned down the
request, saying her work was to take care of her son.” Edu
said, “Amunde refused to
register me in school
insisting that my duty in her
house was to take care of her
(Amunde) son. “I was attending Girls Secondary
School in my village and I
was in JS-1. Even when I was
with her mother (Amunde)
briefly before coming to
Calabar, she allowed me to go to school. But my boss
said because of her son, I
cannot attend school.” Edu
alleged that in the course of
carrying out her duties, she
was maltreated and abused by Papa. She alleged that it
was Papa that poured the
hot water on her after a
slight misunderstanding. She
said, “In the morning of
March 9, I unplugged a kettle and was turning the water in
it into a bucket when Papa
said the water splashed on
him. He soon brought a
smaller bowl, dipped it into
the bucket of hot water and poured it on me. “When I told
my boss about the incident,
she neither reacted nor did
anything to the burn. It was
after my skin had had started
peeling because of the burn that Amunde gave me two
tablets of Panadol to use.
“However, when I went to
fetch water from the
borehole five days later,
some neighbours saw my peeling skin and screamed.
One of them took me to the
general hospital.” At the
hospital, a nurse, who
identified herself as Alice,
said a child rights activist, Mr. James Ibor, was called and
he, in turn, alerted the police.
Ibor said, “We have made
written requests to the Cross
River State Commissioner of
Police to effect the arrest of Amunde and Papa to face the
law because what they have
done amounts to felony.” The
activist said what they did by
taking Udu from her mother
to serve as housemaid was human trafficking. He said
Udu would thereafter be
taken to an orphanage where
she would eventually be
taken back to her parents
after the wound had healed. Efforts to get Amunde and
Papa to speak on the issue
proved abortive. When
contacted, the state Police
Public Relations Officer, Mr.
John Umoh, said he was yet to be briefed of the incident.
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