Police in Taraba State have arrested a man and his wife accused of torturing their 13-year-old ward for alleged theft.
The girl was taken to hospital with severe burns to her hands after the incident was reported to police.
The state Commissioner of Police, David Iloyanomon, stated this on Friday while parading the suspects at the police headquarters in Jalingo, the state capital.
Mr Iloyanomon said the local police division received a complaint on July 1 that one Bulus Bitonopa had tortured the girl (name withheld), causing her to suffer “temporary paralysis”.
The police chief said a man he identified as Hon. Cleopas was also in custody for taking the victim to his home in Jalingo instead of taking her to the hospital “in an attempt to conceal the crime.”
He said Cleopas also resisted police intervention after the matter was reported.
The victim narrates his terrible experience
Speaking to PREMIUM TIMES at the Federal Medical Centre, Jalingo, on Friday, the teenager narrated how her guardians tied her hands with a rubber band and poured hot water with pepper on her.
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Speaking in Hausa, she narrated how her uncle and his wife allegedly tortured her.
“In May, my uncle asked me to come out of the village and stay with them, promising to send me to school. That Friday, his wife asked me to call some young men to work on their farm.
“But when I came back from running the errand, she told me that she was missing 5,000 naira and suspected that I had stolen it. My uncle and another person tied my hands while she boiled water with pepper and poured it on me.”
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She said she was kept tied up for several hours until an uncle of hers, who came from the village to Yorro for market day, rescued her.
“Then they took me to the hospital where they only gave me one injection.”
The police chief said the suspects in the incident will be prosecuted following police investigations.