FCTA Call Centre facilitates teen’s rescue

By Abdullahi Muhammad Abuja

An 11-year-old boy was fi nally rescued from his parents who were supposed to be protecting him, and handed over to FCT Administration’s Social Development Secretariat (SDS). Th e journey to Chibuike’s rescue started when a concerned resident placed a call to the FCTA Call Centre, complaining that the young boy’s human rights were being trampled upon.

Th e anonymous caller said Chibuike was being locked up in his parents’ house, with all doors padlocked whenever they were not around, adding that unlike the couple’s other two younger kids, he (Chibuike) never went out with the parents to anywhere, including church and that he was not in school. Our investigation revealed that persistent eff orts by a combined team of the Nigeria Police (Lugbe Division) and the FCT Administration who paid several unsuccessful visits to the house in Lubge to save Chibuike fi nally paid off , last week, when they met his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ifeoma Chinasa Okwu, and invited them to Lugbe Police station for interrogation. While speaking to the press, Acting Director Gender, Social Development Secretariat, Mrs. Agnes Hart, said the Secretariat confi rmed the allegations relied through the Call Centre that “a child somewhere in Lugbe was being locked in the house without care.”

“Th at he is not taken out whenever the family is going out. Th ey don’t take the child either to church or out anywhere.” Mrs. Hart said: “And we felt very concern that this shouldn’t be happening in the FCT. Th is is a very serious form of abuse so we contacted the Nigeria Police in Lugbe who kept on promising us to do something about it but because we have the best interest of this child, we decided that we would bring the child and the family together.” She disclosed that the FCT had Child Rights Act “enables it to arrest or take such cases very seriously,” adding that the FCTA would not take such abuses lightly. “If you are a biological mother and you are molesting the child in anyway, we won’t take it lightly. So, I am sounding a note of warning to all parents, if you have intention of wanting to maltreat a child in FCT, it won’t be tolerated. We have the best interest of the child at heart. Th is is a clear form of abuse and we will not tolerate it in the FCT.”

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