What in your opinion can be the crime of this two year old,who barely can speak?

 

In a world where some will go to any length, pay any price, conduct any ritual whether scientific or traditional, just to have a child who they can call “the blood of my blood” yet some blessed with this unmerited favour from God who perhaps uses this to avow he is no respecter of person, will subject this blessings to untold hardship, neglect and severe torture.

John as simply called is an innocent lad whose only crime perhaps is being born. He found himself landing on the rocky side of life; his mother still a subject of contention, his father not even in the picture, raised by a girl who without shame or remorse engages in the age long immoral business of prostitution.

She locks John outside while attending to her ‘customer’ and locks him inside alone come night fall as she sets out for each day’s hustle without care or thought for the risk and danger such isolation can pose to a two year old who has to battle with the dark, wrestle with the cold and surmount the silence of the night each day without any ally.

After having to grow up radically at the detriment of his innocence, John barely eats as detailed on his kwashiorkor body displaying his ribs as though it were an art gallery display. AGood Samaritan neighbor gives account of how he tries to feed John by passing a straw through a hole for the poor kid to grasp a sip of drink on several occasions. This according to eyewitness was the offence committed by the poor lad which the guardian proclaimed required deterrence.

Upon the malnutrition which has led to pile, the guardian, Miss Janet Moses,subjected him to cruelty by beating him mercilessly leaving signatures of scars on his fleshless skin.

Bruises and scars tattoo the lad’s thin protruded neck. The guardian’sbloody signatureleft twenty eight scars as she continually accused the starved boy of begging for food “long throat,” also swiping the face leaving 12 injuries, broken nose and bloody mouth.

Very few children can survive such horror of which words fall short to describe, but John determined to rise above death as exhibited by the sparkle in his eyes, as he manages to mutter a smile.

The monstrous hearted guardian who for my money is capable of cold blood murder was confronted by a girl who will not suffer her name to be mentioned, only for the sadist guardian to boldly affirm the act and threatened to do more if the intruder inquires further.

Silently, John’s heroine perhaps tormented by the gory state of the innocent child decided to act shunning the average Nigerian “I don’t care” attitude and reported the case to the Mabuchi Police Division Abuja. The Police immediately swung into action, rescued the boy and arrested the perpetrator of the offence who has since been charged to court.

John was referred to the Women Trafficking and Child Labour Eradication Foundation (WOTCLEF) by the Police owing to the existing collaboration between the Police and the Foundation, who immediately contacted a partner organization Victorine Homes to take custody of the lad.

On Monday 28^th April, 2014, Miss Janet Moses was sentenced to two months in prison with an option of fine, for the count charge of cruelty to child, of which she was found guilty. The court further directed her to produce John’s parents under a specified period.

There are thousands of kids going through similar or worst conditions on daily basis, like in the case of John, just a little concern and action from you can shape the entire existence of a victim and replace each scar be it physical, emotional or psychological with love.

Do not be indifferent, do not sit on the fence, join the cause and lend a voice to the voiceless; for we can only find changes in the world by leading the change in the streets of the world.