Mother Burns 11-Year-Old Daughter’s B*ttocks With Hot Knife

A middle  aged woman,
Ene Edem Okon, has been arrested by the police 
for allegedly  inflicting bodily
harm and tying her 11-year-old daughter, Queeneth Ene Edem, hands and legs  for being wayward. She was arrested when
Queeneth appeared in her school, Government Primary School, Akim, with multiple
wounds on her chest, stomach and buttocks prompting the school authorities to
report the matter to the police at the Akim Police Station.

The girl  narrated to
Sunday Vanguard that, on  February 17,
she left  home at  Eneyo village in Akpabuyo  Local Government Area for  the Maternity Junction Settlement, some four
kilometers away from  home, to meet her
cousin, one Blessing, but did not return home. “We were waiting for Blessing’s
friend from whom she wanted to collect something but she delayed in coming and
we waited till night and, because we were afraid of  going back home, we slept in an uncompleted
building at the Maternity Junction”, she said.

he 11-year-old said the next day, one of her friends saw her
at the Maternity Junction and told her that her mother  was looking  
for her with a machete after which she became afraid to go  back home. “We stayed on the road near  our house and were breaking kernel to eat
when my mother sent somebody  to come and
catch us. That  person  came pretending to play with us but  suddenly grabbed me and dragged me to my
mother”.

The mother, angry, allegedly got hold of her and used a rod
to hit her all over her body, thus leaving 
her with severe wounds. “She also put the kitchen knife in the fire she
was cooking and when it was hot, she placed 
it on my buttocks”, the girl stated.

When Sunday Vanguard met Mrs Ene Okon at the Akim Police
Station, she appeared  remorseful,  stating that 
she was driven by anger because Queeneth 
was stubborn and had formed the habit of spending the night outside at
such a tender age. “I  sent her  to school in far away Calabar because I don’t
trust the school here in Akpabuyo but she is just too stubborn, so I had to
teach her a lesson.”

Mr Hogan Bassey, the police spokesman for Cross River Police
Command, said the woman would  appear in
court after investigations are concluded.

Mr Bassey Ibor, a 
child rights activist, said children’s courts in the state are not
functioning and called on the state government to fund the courts. “The cases
we have taken to the children’s courts 
have suffered long adjournments because the judges are not sitting.
Government should, as a matter of urgency, ensure that the courts are funded so
that these children would not continue 
to be denied of justice.”

Vangaurd