A Magistrate Court in Owerri, Imo State has remanded a 38-year-old businesswoman, Juliet Igwe, in custody of the Owerri Correctional Centre following serious allegations of inflicting grievous harm and attempting to murder her five-year-old domestic helper, a young girl named Onyinyechi, through brutal acts involving the use of candle flames and boiling water that resulted in extensive and life-threatening injuries across the child’s body.
The suspect, who faced arraignment on charges brought forward by the Imo State Police Command, allegedly employed candlelight to burn the victim’s private parts while also pouring boiling water that effectively peeled off the skin from the child’s hands, in addition to causing multiple other injuries that left the minor in a critically vulnerable state.
Details presented in court revealed that the child had reportedly been abandoned to suffer in her dire condition, wandering without immediate medical intervention for several days following the alleged assault, until external intervention brought the matter to light and facilitated urgent rescue efforts.
The case gained significant public attention primarily due to the proactive involvement of a prominent human rights organization known as the Stand For Humanity Foundation, which discovered the child in her severely compromised and painful state, promptly arranged for her rescue, and played a pivotal role in ensuring the subsequent arrest of the suspect on December 4.
The court proceedings took place yesterday at the Chief Magistrate Court in Owerri, Imo State, where Igwe was formally arrianged before Chief Magistrate B. U. Adikibe on a single-count charge of attempted murder, stemming directly from the incident that allegedly occurred on November 25 and involved the deliberate infliction of severe physical torture on the minor as a form of punishment.
Police prosecutors told the court that the offence carries a potential punishment of life imprisonment under relevant laws, leading Magistrate Adikibe to declare that the magistrate court lacked the necessary jurisdiction to entertain or adjudicate the matter fully, thereby necessitating higher judicial oversight.
In accordance with this jurisdictional determination, the magistrate directed that the accused be held in prison custody pending further action and instructed that the entire case file be promptly forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions for comprehensive legal advice and potential reassignment to an appropriate court.
Led by activist journalist Chidiebube Okeoma, the Stand For Humanity Foundation not only coordinated the child’s rescue but also ensured her immediate admission to the Imo State University Medical Centre in Owerri, where she continues to undergo essential medical treatment, while the organization persists in its advocacy for the victim’s full recovery and for stringent accountability to be enforced in this disturbing instance of child abuse.
Speaking briefly to journalists after the court session, Igwe expressed regret over the incident. “I didn’t know that this child would be in such pain. I didn’t know. It is only God that will judge me. I don’t know what came over me. I have been crying and praying for God to heal Onyinyechi,” she said.
