More than five months after an 11-year-old girl was
allegedly raped to death, her remains are yet to be released to her family for
burial. Anurika Nathan, an 11-year-old native of Owo-Ahia Afor, Obingwa Local
Government Area, Abia State, was allegedly raped to death by her guardian, and
her parents are worried that her corpse had not been released for burial long
after autopsy was concluded on it.
The Nation had reported the death of Anurika, the last
female child of Mr. Chinenye Nathan, a civil servant in Abia State, in the
house of her guardian in whose house she was working as a house help before her
untimely death. The man had allegedly rushed Anurika to a private hospital in
Umuahia after she went into coma, but the hospital referred her to the Federal
Medical Centre (FMC), Umuahia for urgent attention. It was learnt, however,
that the girl died before they could get to the medical centre and her body was
deposited in the hospital’s morgue.
Sources in Owo-Ahia Afor said that Anurika’s family members
were pained by the death of their daughter who had been sent to the ASOPADEC
commissioner’s house to serve as a house help and also further her education. A
family source told our correspondent that they were yet to be shown the result
of the autopsy, adding: “We are sure that the man abused our daughter, because
at the FMC, blood was rushing out from her private part. She also sustained
injuries on her legs.
The source, who said the police were already investigating
the matter, also accused the police of trying to sweep the matter under the
carpet owing to the influence of the commissioner in the state. He was
allegedly bragging that he had the wherewithal to influence police
investigation against the poor economic status of the victim’s family.
The immediate past governor of the state, Chief Theodore
Ahamefule Orji, had through the then Commissioner for Information, Anthony
Agbazuere, addressed a press conference where he disclosed that the state had
placed the errant official on interdiction because of the heinous nature of the
allegation against him, pending the determination of his case by the police and
the courts, adding that Sec
However, in response to a text message sent to his phone,
the Abia State Commissioner of Police, Joshiak Habila, said that the matter had
been transferred to the DPP (Director of Public Prosecution) for advice.
But the father of the late Anurika, Mr. Nathaniel, said he
was at the hospital when his daughter died after bleeding for more than 30
minutes. According to the late Anurika’s father, blood was gushing out from his
daughter’s genitals, mouth and nose, which he said was a proof that she was
raped
.
He lamented that all the efforts they had made to retrieve
her body for burial had yielded no result because the hospital demanded N970,
000 as the medical fees they must pay before they would be allowed to take her
corpse home for burial.
Nathaniel, who said he was no longer interested in
prosecuting the case because of its financial involvement, however appealed to
the Abia State governor, Dr. Okezie Victor Ikpeazu, to come to their aid by
directing the management of the FMC to release his daughter’s corpse for burial
or compel the man that raped her to offset the medical bill to enable him take
his daughter’s corpse home, saying that he and other members of the family had
handed the matter over to God.
A family source, who disclosed that the mother and other
members of the late Anurika’s family were already traumatised by the
development, stressed that keeping their daughter’s corpse continuously in the
morgue would mean more emotional trauma for the family.
The source also appealed to Abia State Government, the
management of FMC and public spirited individuals to assist the family in
ensuring that the corpse of their daughter was released to them for burial.
wonders shall never end
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