By Sunday Agbo, Abakaliki

A four-year-old girl, identi­fied as Uloma, has been bartered by her mother in Abakaliki, Ebonyi state for a reprieve from a N100 debt.

Orient Daily learnt that Ulo­ma’s mother, Veronica Igwe, owed a widow, Nwali Jose­phine the sum of N100 after a transaction at an Abakaliki Rice Mill, a debt she could not pay. When the widow insisted on having her money back, Mrs. Igwe’s last option appeared to be to barter one of her children pending when she would be able to pay the N100.

The girl was eventually tak­en to the widow’s house at the CAS campus of the Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki. She had spent nine months there before the attention of the au­thorities of the institution got drawn to the widow’s mal­treatment of Uluoma.

Mrs. Elom Cecilia, the offi­cer responsible for child mal­treatment at the social welfare section of the state ministry of social affairs confirmed the incident, saying that “It is child abuse and exploitation because the poor girl did not transact any business with her. This is a serious case of child abuse. We received a call that a woman called Nwali Josephine was maltreating children. We hastened up immediately and went to the scene and saw the children. One of the children is four years old.

Her biological mother told us that she met the woman at Rice Mill Abakaliki and bought something on credit from the woman. She said she could not pay the woman N100 that was remaining and suggested to the woman to take her child if she could not wait for her to pay her later and that the wom­an accepted to take the child.

“We invited the Mrs. Veroni­ca to our office and interviewed her after which we handed her over to the police for further investigation. The child has not been united with her parents because she is sick. We are taking her to hospital for medical attention because her condi­tion is very bad”, she added.

https://orientdailynews.com.ng/news/mother-exchanges-year-old-daughter/

mynd44 seun lalasticlala

hey look a pregnant 4 year old