By Izunna Okafor, Awka
Anambra State Government, through the State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare, has arrested a man, Mr. Uche Mbonu and his wife over the malnourishment and maltreatment of the children belonging to his first wife whom he has divorced.
The incident happened in Osumenyi, Nnewi South Local Government Area of the State, where the state government also rescued the five malnourished children.
Testifying before the State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Welfare, Mrs Ify Obinabo; a source from the community revealed that Mr. Mbonu divorced his first wife some years ago and married the second one, who used to be his salesgirl before.
It was also gathered that he refused to allow his first wife to go with her children when he divorced her (except the youngest one); while since then, he and his second wife have continued to maltreat and malnourish the children she left behind, to the point that the younger ones among them (ranging between 5 to 10 years) resorted to eating raw rice to survive, due to hunger.
According to the source the child eat only one square meal in a day, which comes around 3.pm or thereabouts, while they don’t also go to school but get locked up inside the room everyday whenever their dad and stepmom want to go out.
It was further gathered that Mr. Mbonu, who owns a booming block industry, exploits the eldest among the children as an enslaved bricklayer in his block industry, and compels him to mould no fewer than five bags of cement everyday (on empty belly), after which he would not pay him Kobo from year to year, only to give him N500 in the afternoon to buy buns and mineral, which would also be his only square meal throughout the day.
When interrogated, the fresh-looking suspect, Mr. Mbonu said he usually buys blood tonics for the children; while, on her own part, the equally-fresh-looking second wife (who has her own breastfeeding baby) claimed that she only starves the wife-in-law’s children whenever they eat raw rice, so that the raw rice they ate would serve as meal for them.
In her reaction after hearing from the parties, the Women Affairs Commissioner, Mrs. Obinabo who expressed displeasure with the entire story and the physical appearance of the malnourished children, ordered the immediate hand-over the suspects to the police for further investigation and swift prosecution.
While assuring that the suspects would be charged to court as soon as possible, she also warned men against depriving their divorced wives access and custody of her children, most especially underaged children.
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