Heartless Mistress batters 15-year-old house mai

A lady and a mother, Ebere Ugochukwu, is now in serious trouble for battering her 15-year-old house maid, Oluebube Amadi, over allegations that the girl was in the habit of tickling her private and the woman fears she would teach the habit to her own female children.

To stop her from the unwholesome, Ugochukwu descended on the primary 6 pupil and beat her blue-black, leaving her with bruises.

The young girl who was brought to Lagos by the woman, lives with the Ugochukwu family on Muhammed Akinje Street, Ejigbo, Lagos State.

Punch Metro gather that it was a Good Samaritan who met Amadi while she was writhing in pain on the street advised the victim to report the assault to the police but she turned down the idea for fear of being further punished by the guardian.

The sympathetic who got in touch with the newspaper, said that she saw the girl with bruises on her body and when asked what had transpired, the girl said her madam beat her for sending her child on an errand.

The victim added that the woman applied pepper on her injuries after the flogging.

But when reporters got in touch with the Ugochukwu, she was said to have justified her brutal act on the girl by saying she took the action because the victim had been caught masturbating as well as stealing.

Ugochukwu said:

"She touches her private parts with her fingers and she has started doing same to my daughters. I was really annoyed.

When I asked her where she learnt it, she said she used to do it in the village. The beating I gave her was the highest since she has been living with me.

I tied her hands and legs. Besides, she is used to stealing. She steals my money and items from school.

I brought her from Enugu in 2012 to look after my children because I used to lock them up whenever I was going out. My mother got her for me from her parents, who live beside our house."

But the girl insisted that on the day of the incident, she only sent the girl to fetch her soap while she was washing plates, though she confessed that she actually steals and masturbates.

"She usually flogs me. I steal and do masturbate, but I did not steal that day. She beat me for sending her daughter to bring me soap to wash plates."

The woman's husband, Emeka Ugochukwu, a vehicle inspection officer, confirmed that the girl steals:

"The items she stole from school are still with her. I told her to return them. I will take her back to her parents.”

But a neighbour confided in the Punch that there may be more than meets the eye in the actions of the woman as beating has become 'a hobby' for her and a daily tonic for the girl.

"That is how she beats her. Everybody has complained, including the landlady to no avail. We even told her to take her back to the village if she can’t cope with her. Now, nobody bothers to intervene whenever the girl is being flogged."