Woman, 38, offers daughter, 4, as collateral for N100 debt in enugu
Officials of the Ministry of Women Affairs has handed one Mrs. Josephine Nwali to the Ebonyi State Police Command for allegedly maltreating a 4-year-old girl identified as Uloma Igwe.
Uloma had been seen at Nwali’s residence hawking and looking malnourished.
Interestingly, the child had been reportedly handed over to Nwali as collateral for a N100 debt owed by her mother, Veronica Igwe.
Veronica, 38, offered Uloma as collateral when Nwali insisted on collecting the money for a transaction at Abakaliki Rice Mill in 2017.
The mother reportedly said she’d take her child back once she paid back Nwali’s money.
The Desk Officer in charge of Child Abuse /Maltreatment Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Cecilia Elom, said the ministry was altered to Uloma’s plight on Tuesday.
Elom said: “On reaching the residence, we saw little Uloma Igwe with another seven – year- old boy hawking. On interrogation , they confessed to have been lured into hawking by the creditor.
“Uloma’s mother, Veronica, informed our officials that she suggested to her debtor that she could bring one of her children in exchange for the debt.
“She maintained that she did not know the residence of the woman she handed her daughter to, but that the transaction took place at the rice mill where they do daily rice transactions.”
Elom said Uloma will be taken for proper treatment.
