Akure -The Ondo State Government has charged the residents of the state to always report cases of child abuse to security agencies or the State Ministry of Women Affairs.
The Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs Yemi Mahmud-Fasominu, gave the charge on Tuesday during an interview with newsmen in Akure.
The commissioner gave the advice while reacting to the case of a woman who alleged abused her son by dipping his hands into a boiling water at the weekend.
The mother of the victim, Mrs Kehinde Ojo, was said to have punished her six-year-old son for alleged stealing cooked beans and gari from a neighbour’s house.
Ojo was alleged to have dipped her son’s two hands into boiling water by midnight at Obanla Street, Akure.
The commissioner, who spoke through the Director, Child Development Department in the Ministry, Mr Ogunleye Oluwaniyi, said reporting such maltreatment would prevent the victim from emotional and psychological tortures.
Fasominu said if such cases were not reported immediately to the appropriate organs of government for caution and prevention, it could lead to a life torture for its victims.
She commended the Anti-Human Trafficking Department of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps [NSCDC] Ondo State Command for promptly reporting the matter to the ministry.
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The corps had earlier received a distressed-call from a concerned neighbour who was awake all through the night, she said.
The commissioner said that mother was later apprehended while the boy was rushed to the State Specialist Hospital in Akure for medical attention,
He was later referred to the Trauma Centre in Ondo town for additional treatment, she said.
Fasominu, however, appealed to the public not to cover up such cases but that they should report them to the appropriate quarters.
She said that by such act, they would be building a loving and caring environment for us to live in.
According to her, the security agents will not incarcerate offenders of such cases, but they will counsel them on the consequences and caution them against future recurrence.
Fasominu said that such maltreatment could harden the heart of its victim.
The commissioner urged the public to complement the present administration’s gestures for the children in the state.(NAN)
