The Police in Sokoto has rescued a 13-year-old girl who has been in torturous confinement after being in caged for eight months by her aunt. The aunt and her husband had caged and starved the girl at their residence in the Sokoto Cinema area of the state, claiming that she was “mad”.
The aunt simply known as Mama Happiness moved into the apartment last year with her husband and two daughters, excluding Joy, the girl who would later be caged by them. But according to neighbours, few days after packing into the new apartment, she sought permission from the caretaker of the house to build a cage which she claimed she would use as a store. Unknown to the caretaker, Mama Happiness was going put Joy in the cage for months.
“She brought her in the cage at night when people were fast asleep and kept the girl in there for eight months,” a neighbor said.
According to one of the neighbours, Mama Happiness is very to everyone, so” one neighbour said. So nobody wanted to be associated with her even before this incident.
But during the Eid cerebrations on Thursday, when some children were playing near the cage, they discovered the young girl inside and raised alarm.
“Some kids were playing around the cage built by Mama Happiness and suddenly ran back towards us saying that there was somebody in the cage,” said Felix Anyanwu, one of the neighbours.
“So I picked a big kitchen spoon to see what they were running away from. When I hit the cage, the person inside wasn’t saying anything.”
Several neighbours confirmed the story saying that they believed the whole family knew about the illegal confinement of the girl. But Mama Happiness and her husband claimed the girl was mad and they kept her in detention “so that she would not cause any damage to the neighbours”.
“When the girl was brought out of the refrigerator in the cage, the first thing she asked for was food,” said another neighbour who witnessed the incident.
The caretaker of the house and other neighbours held an emergency meeting over the matter and decided that the girl should be taken to the psychiatric hospital with immediate effect but the aunt said she did not have funds for the bill.
“So tenants in the house contributed money and moved the girl to a psychiatric hospital in Sokoto.
“But on getting there, doctors confirmed that the girl had no mental disorder but was only suffering from starvation and malnutrition.”
The Police PRO in Sokoto, Abubakar Sunusi, said the woman and her husband are now in the police custody for the cruel incarceration of the girl.
He said the State Commissioner of Police was aware of the matter and had shown keen interest in it.
“I am assuring you that this case will not go without proper justice,” he said on Sunday. “We’ve have visited the scene of the occurrence and we have detained the aunt and husband who have caged that girl in that manner.”
Sunusi also said the case had been transferred to the state’s Criminal Investigation Department, adding that the caged girl is now in good condition receiving treatment in hospital.