A High Court sitting in Enugu State has sentenced an employee of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Jude Ozuogu and his wife, Ifeoma Ozuogu, to 13 years imprisonment for child abuse.
The convict abused the victim, identified as Nneoma Nnadi, for allegedly causing her baby to fall to the ground at their home in Aku, Igbo-Etiti LGA of the state.
The couple were also accused of inserting pelper into the little girl’s private parts and locking her up in the toilet for refusing to wash plates.
They were arrested after neighbors raised an alarm and was subsequently arraigned before Justice A. C. Ogbuabor of State High Court 10 on three counts bordering on inflicting grievous harm, administering noxious or piou§ness substance and employment of a child as a domestic worker.
Delivering judgment in the suit marked No: HE/121c/2020, the court convicted and sentenced the couple to 13 years imprisonment each.
Justice Ogbuabor convicted the couple on all three counts and sentenced them accordingly. On count one – Inflicting grievous harm, the court sentenced them to three years imprisonment.
On count two – administering a noxious or poisonous substance, the court sentenced the couple to five years imprisonment and on count three – employment of a child as a domestic worker, the court sentenced the couple to five years imprisonment.
The court, however, ordered that the period the convicts had stayed in custody from the day of arrest should be discounted and that all sentences shall run concurrently.
