Woman allegedly murders nine-year-old house help

The police in Enugu State, south-east Nigeria, have arraigned a woman, Ujunwa Ugwuoke, for the murder of a nine-year-old girl who was her house help.

Mrs Ugwuoke, 29, was arraigned at the Enugu North Magistrate Court on 20 January by the Homicide Section of the State Criminal Investigation Department, according to a statement on Friday from the police spokesperson in the state, Daniel Ndukwe.

The slain girl has been identified as Precious Korshima.

Mr Ndukwe, a deputy superintendent of police, said the suspect had been remanded in the Enugu Custodial Centre and the case file sent to the Director of Public Prosecution for legal advice.

“The investigation revealed that the suspect confessed to have, during the night hours of November 8, 2022, beaten and caused the death of the minor, who was her house-help, in her residence at Fidelity Estate, Enugu.

“Thereafter, in the morning hours of the following day, she took the lifeless body of the child to the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Ituku-Ozalla, for medical attention.

“However, upon getting confirmation of her death by doctors on duty, she immediately took and dumped her corpse in a refuse dumpsite along Ugbo-Nwagidi Village Road, Enugwueze Uno-Ituku community in Awgu Local Government Area,” the police said.

“Furthermore, she went to Abakaliki in Ebonyi State, from where she sent a false alarm claiming that the deceased, her little child and herself, were kidnapped on November 9, 2022.

“She alleged that the kidnap took place on her way back home from Independence Layout Enugu that fateful day, where she had gone to refill her gas cylinder. She said the kidnapped persons were taken to an unknown destination.

“She further claimed the kidnappers were demanding a ransom of N20 million for each of them,” he said.

The police spokesperson said the suspect, however, resurfaced on 16 November 2022, claiming that the kidnappers spared her and her child’s life, but shot the deceased dead.

“The case, which was initially reported at New Haven Police Division as a case of kidnapping, was transferred to the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the Command and further transferred to the Homicide Section of the State CID, upon her confessional statement,” he said.

Mr Ndukwe said the state Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Ammani, commended the painstaking efforts made by police detectives to lay a firm foundation for the dispensation of justice in the case.

He said that the commissioner charged parents to be mindful of whom they entrust the custody and care of their children.

(NAN)