A female journalist, working with a local television based in Kaduna, Halima Aliyu Kofar Doka, has been reportedly assaulted while investigating a case of child abuse, torture, molestation and horrible beating by a father in Zaria, Kaduna state.
A Non-governmental Organisation (NGO), Arridah Relief Foundation of Nigeria, said the reporter with DITV was assaulted while trying to balance the story of a father that torture his daughter to death in Zaria.
Founder of the NGO, Hajiya Rabi Salisu, had condemned the attack and the abuse in totality, said they heard about the ugly situation of the little girl, Maimunatu Shehu, in Zaria.
She said Maimunatu reported the various forms of assault she often received from her father, Mallam Shehu, including torturing, beating, slapping, hitting and other severe physical punishment.
“As a result of daily beating, the father broke her hand, legs and some part of her body, living her with many injuries in which she is currently receiving medical treatment in a private hospital”, she said.
Salisu said when Shehu was contacted, he lied that his daughter fell from a bicycle.
“We came for rescued mission, that is why we organised our team to come and see for ourselves the kind of situation the young child is passing through since after the death of her mother, and we got our information through their neighbour”, she said.
Salisu added that she was the one that informed Halima Aliyu Kofar Doka, who is Zaria based journalist and a reporter with DITV Kaduna about the incident of a father who always beat his three-year-old daughter, now admitted in the hospital.
“It’s really unfortunate what happen to the journalist, because as she went to the see Shehu who is the father of the little girl at his resident, she met some women in the compound that surrounded her and despite her explanation for the reason of coming to see the father of the little girl, they refuse to hear her and started beating her, removing her cloth and strip her necked.
“The journalist was assaulted through grabbing her neck, beating her and she is currently in pains and this is not really good for us activists”, she added.
