The Abia State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development has showcased a Six(6) year old boy,Master Marvelous,who was a victim of child trafficking, with a call on the public especially those in Rivers State to identify and collect him.
Master Marvelous was stolen from Port-Harcourt, Rivers State by a syndicate which specialises in stealing and selling children to willing buyers and dumped at a charitable home in Abia State after arrangements for selling him by the traffickers were foiled.
Briefing Journalists in her office, Monday,the State Commissioner for Women Affairs & Social Development, Mrs Ukachi Amala,disclosed that the child was stolen alongside ten others whose whereabouts cannot be ascertained but assured that security agencies are on the trail of the traffickers to ensure that they are tracked and made to face the law.
She disclosed that the boy has been incoherent and unable to identify his core identity adding that the behaviour may be as a result of being hypnotised by his abductors.
She said: “Unfortunately, through the substances given to this young boy, he can’t recollect his address, today he tells you he was caught from Obigbo, next tomorrow, he tells you Mbiama, the other one he tells you Bayelsa so something has gone wrong with his psyche.
“He tells us that his father’s name is Ernest and the mother’s name Amarachi but the surname we don’t know.
“I am sure a family is bleeding and mourning a lost child, they can come to us with full identity and take him home.”
According to the commissioner,efforts are on top gear to trace the parents of the child and reunite him with his family.
The Commissioner also informed newsmen of a case involving a 17 year old girl named Gift, from Akwa-Ibom State, who was employed to serve as House Help in a particular family in Aba for fifteen (15) thousand naira per month but ended up becoming a victim of assault and maltreatment from her mistress who molested and inflicted injuries on her.
“They employed her with the intention to pay her 15 thousand naira every month and they ended up giving her five thousand naira which never came after three months”, the commissioner said.
She warned that the state is a no go area for child molestation, trafficking and baby factory and other forms of crime against women and children adding that in line with the stand of the State government policy on the Gender-based Violence Act recently passed into law,such cases would be tackled.
In her words: “Abia State government is leaving no stone unturned in catching the perpetrators of these very bad acts. Abia is a no go area for baby factories. Abia State is not ready to negotiate with anybody whose business is to sell children.
“Abia State cannot be comfortable for anybody that trafficks in children.
We don’t romance with child trafficking, rape and molestation. We want to sanitize this state”.
Mrs Amala, cautioned parents who send their underaged children out as house helps and expose them to abuse to be careful and urged them to give birth to the number of children they could train while advising those in need of children to apply to the Ministry for legal adoption.
She commended the men of the Nigeria Security & Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) for assisting in rescuing the victims, disclosing that the assaulted girl would be employed by the Ministry to work in one of the approved homes.
Narrating her ordeal, the victim of molestation said she was employed to serve as a cleaner in the house but regretted that her mistress dealt with her to the level that she stopped paying her and refused to buy her drugs even when the beatings meted against her caused her to become ill.
While thanking God for a neighbour that came to her rescue and reported to government afterwards,Gift recalled that she requested the neighbour to give her poison to drink when the maltreatment became unbearable for her.
