Barrister Adachukwu Okafor, the Anambra based female lawyer who allegedly brutalised her 11-year-old house help with a hot knife, has been paraded by the police at the Force Headquarters, Abuja.
Mrs Okafor, a mother of four children, was arrested on February 21 following a bounty of N2 million. She had gone into hiding after severely torturing the 11-year-old Happiness Nwafor, whom she took into her household to serve as a maid, had been arrested by the police in Anambra State.
Recall that on February 12, the Anambra State Command of the Nigerian Police Force launched a manhunt for the fleeing lawyer for allegedly molesting the teenager.
.Happiness was allegedly brutalised with a hot knife and electric iron by her guardian, Adachukwu Okafor, as a punishment for touching her own daughter.
It was learnt that Adachukwu brought Happiness into her home in January 2024 after contacting her parents to help her get a child who would assist her with house chores.
Adachukwu was however declared wanted by both the federal Ministry of women affairs and the state Ministry of women affairs, where a bounty of N2 million was placed.
The lawyer submitted herself to the police, who promptly detained her before transferring her to the force Headquarters.
However, parading the lawyer at the Force Headquarters, the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, who was represented by Head of Police Campaign against Cultism and Other Vices (POCACOV) Bisi Okuobi, vowed to ensure diligent prosecution of the case.
Egbetokun insisted that the Force under his command would not tolerate domestic violence and abuse of minors in the country.
Parading the suspect in the presence of the Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy, Okuobi, a Chief Superintendent of Police, said the police operatives swung on the matter after a complaint lodged to the IGP by the Minister of Women Affairs.
She said the complaint followed a viral video showing how the minor sustained injuries allegedly inflicted by the lawyer after working with her as a maid for two weeks.
“Recall that on February 5th, the internet was awakened by the news of a 10-year-old girl who had burns all over her body. The girl was a maid to one Barrister Adachukwu Helen Okafor of GRA 33, Onitsha, Anambra,” she said.
“She has just been a maid for two weeks, a period during which the said barrister accused the minor of fondling the penis of her six-year-old son while bathing him. On January 29th, this suspect accused her of this and proceeded to tie her hands, and mouth and flogged her.
“She also inserted a hot knife inside her private and poured ground pepper into it as well. She then placed a hot electric iron into the socket and used it on the maid’s cheek and on her two buttocks. After causing the maid trauma, she now locked her up in her toilet from the afternoon of the incident to the evening of the following day without food.”
The police officer said that the suspect handed the maid over to her aunt naked with the trauma she was made to pass through.
Following the burns on the cheek, and buttocks as well as blood and water coming out from her private part, the aunt , according to the police, raised an alarm, a situation that attracted passersby.
Shortly after the incident went viral on social media, the suspect went into hiding upon realising that the Anambra State Police Command and the state government were making efforts to arrest her.
She added, “The alarm attracted passersby who brought out their phones and started recording and taking pictures and this went straight into the social space. This attracted the police of Anambra State Command as well as the Commissioner for Women Affairs in Anambra State.
“All efforts to arrest her proved abortive because she took her heels and became elusive. The honourable minister, Barrister Uju Kennedy, a barrister herself, took the case and released a N2 million bounty on her head.
“She also wrote a petition to the Inspector General of Police, Egbetokun Kayode, who ordered that the petition be handed by the Force CID and the men of the Force CID took action immediately. When the woman discovered that the heat on her was much, I believe she advised herself to come out from her hiding place.
“As soon as she came out, she was arrested. Her statement was taken and she is here with us. She is a mother of four kids. We hope the young girl recuperates better.”