The Police Commissioner for the Federal Capital Territory, Adewale Ajao has ordered the immediate arrest of a lady accused of torturing and starving a 14-year-old girl who was assigned to work as a maid in Abuja.
After a widely shared video of the child, identified as Bashariya, recounting her incident in Hausa went viral online, the authorities took action.
In the video, Bashariya reported that she is from Zamfara State. Her parents had fled their community due to repeated attacks from bandits and had moved to the Gwiwa Eka IDP camp. In search of a better life, the young girl was brought to Abuja to be a domestic worker. However, the frightened girl revealed she was often deprived of food, beaten and burned. Lashes and burn scars were noticeable throughout her body in the video.
The spokesperson for the FCT Police command, SP Josephine Adeh, confirmed the CP has ordered to locate and arrest the woman responsible for the abuse.
“Although the incident was not initially reported to the police, the Commissioner of Police, Adewale Ajao, has directed all Divisional Police Officers within the FCT to urgently identify and arrest the woman involved,” Adeh stated.
“The CP strongly condemns any act of child abuse. He emphasises that anyone who knows they are not capable of properly caring for a child should refrain from taking on such responsibility. No child should be made to suffer such cruelty,” Adeh emphasized.