Child Abuse: Plateau records 247 cases from January to October
Plateau State has recorded about 247 cases of child molestation and abuse between January and October 2022, according to the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ).
The organisations condemned the incessant abuse and maltreatment of children’s rights in society, particularly in Plateau State, adding that the state which was popularly known as the Home of Peace and Tourism is becoming a child’s rights abuse state which they said is unacceptable.
Speaking to journalists in Jos at a press conference at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Press Centre, Plateau State Council, the NAWOJ Plateau Chairperson, Nene Dung, said that what is happening in the state sparked a lot of concerns, not only among mothers, but also among people who fight for the rights of women and girls.
Dung added that it is no longer news that a week ago, an 11-year-old girl, Margaret died as a result of injuries she sustained from the brutalities meted out to her by her so-called ‘Madam’.
READ ALSO: Mrs Nwachukwu tortures 11-year-old ward, Margaret, to death
She recalled that it is sad to note that Plateau is one of the first states that passed the Child’s Rights Acts into Law in 2005, meaning that children of the state are protected by law from any kind of abuse or molestation.
But she regretted that children who are orphaned or who ran away from violence in their own states to come and take refuge in Plateau are not well taken care of but are abused by wicked women who claim to help them.
Dung cited another inhuman case of a 14-year-old in the Mista Ali community of Bassa Council whose leg was broken by her father because she took N100 out of her father’s N500 to buy food to eat.
“She was hungry. The man had kept her like that without food. His wife does not feed her. She took her father’s N500, took N100 to buy food to eat and brought N400 as a change for the father. Yet, the father still went on to beat her and broke her leg.
“He did not take her to the hospital. He kept her at home. It was a good neighbour who brought her case to us. As I am speaking to you now, that case has been transferred to Bassa local government.”
Dung called on the security agencies not to sweep the cases of Margaret Joshua and others under the carpet, why also calling on the state government to provide a functional safe home for children who are being molested to live in so that they do not go back to the homes where they were maltreated until justice comes their way.
She added that justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done because the police would always say that “cases are under investigation. For how long?”
Chairperson of FIDA, Obioma Ngozi Achilefu, said that it was a whistle-blower who informed them that one Margaret Joshua had died of maltreatment at the hands of her guardian which she said prompted them to rush to K–Vom in Jos South where they are living but the culprit lied that Margaret was running a programme in Nasarawa state and also taking care of her two children.
“On November 18, we saw the father of the girl who had gone to the court to obtain an affidavit to withdraw the case that had not even started.
“This dead girl is still in the morgue, and the father has gone to the court to withdraw the case. He wanted to throw in the towel as if he had just lost a common rat.
“I want to say on behalf of FIDA that society should wake up. The slogan that says when you see something, say something should not just fizzle out. In Plateau, the Child’s Protection Law is there to see that perpetrators of these evils are brought to book,” she stressed.
On her part, NHRC chairperson, Grace Pam, said that parents should bear children that they can adequately take care of.
She said that all these cases are not as grievous as that of Margaret Joshua, but that nowadays human abuses are too rampant.
Pam appealed to the police to protect the rights of not only children but adults too.
