Lawyer arrested for housing girl for three weeks

An Anambra State based legal practitioner, (name withheld), is now in trouble for allegedly abducting a teenage girl for about three weeks without the consent of her parents.

Prior to the abduction, the parents of the girl had given her to a family in Awada area of Onitsha, Anambra State, where served as a house help.

The teenage girl was said to have left the family she was

staying with, claiming she was being maltreated.

She was said to have left the home for an unknown destination shortly after the argument without informing anybody. She was, however, reported to have run into the lawyer, whom, after she narrated her story, took her into his home. The lawyer was alleged to have harboured the girl for three weeks without reporting the matter to the police.

The parents of the teenage girl, worried by her disappearance, went to Awada Police Station to lodge a complaint against the family that they handed her over to.

Police were said to have declared the girl missing and embarked on search until she was found in the home of the lawyer.

The lawyer was subsequently arrested by policemen attached to the 3-3 Police Station, and later handed over to the Awada Police Station for further investigation.

The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of 3 -3 Police Stations, Mrs Jane Mbanefo, confirming the incident, said: “The problem we have in this area is people who claim to be lawyers without decorum. No week passes without somebody who claims to be a lawyer, coming to the station and trying to intimidate my policemen, aimed at achieving his/her selfish interest. Just like this case now, in spite of the fact that he committed a criminal offence for abducting the girl for about three consecutive weeks, he still has the gut to claim innocent of the offence. This is just a tip of the iceberg. There are so many cases like that. What I do in such cases is to immediately charge such matters to court so the accused and complainants will go there to settle they want to.”