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EKO HOT BLOG reports that two sisters, identified as Amarachi Ugwueze, 19, and Chidinma Ugwueze, 21, have cried out over assaults on them by their brother, Emmanuel Ugwueze, who is reported to be a Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps official in Abuja.
Following social media circulation of the incident, the Press reached out to the two victims on Saturday, and they spoke specifically about how the Civil Defence Official, Ugwueze, who is their elder brother had been physically assaulting them at their residence in Abuja for over a year now.
Amarachi, one of the sisters, said she went to her brother’s house on her mother’s orders to spend two weeks in the absence of the house help, who was preoccupied with other things, adding that after the two weeks, she was not allowed to return home by her brother
Amarachi said she never wanted to stay in Mr Ugwueze’s house because of the kind of person he was. According to her, she called her mum and her sister to complain to them.
“I contacted my mother and sisters and told them what was going on in the house.” My mother and sisters were not pleased with the situation, and my mother advised me to be patient and that I would return home after Christmas. Christmas came and went, and he refused to let me come home.
“So, when I came to the family house to pack some of my clothes, he asked me to open my phone and saw my chat with my friends and asked if I have a boyfriend and I told him yes. He said what gave me the right to have a boyfriend and own an android phone is that all the girls on my contact list are into hook-ups.
“On January 24, he came home with my other brother to beat me and my sister. He tore my admission letter that I’m not going to school until he feels like he wants me to. He beats me from 10 pm to 4 am. He asked my elder sister to bring iron to use on my body. He and my brothers took turns in hitting me, saying that I’m stubborn. He hit me continuously even when I was bleeding. He removed my fingernails too.
“I couldn’t report to anyone because this isn’t the first time he’s hitting me, and I’m afraid to go to any station because the last time he hit me, I reported the case to a human rights activist who came home and settled the situation.” When he left, my brother returned and beat me again, threatening that he had everyone under his control, that his power, connections, and money were all there for him.
“He also collected my phone and asked me to remove my shirt and he touched me. It was very painful and traumatising”, she confessed.
She said further that when her elder sister, Chidinma, tried to complain in the house, she was equally hit by the Civil Defence Official, Mr Ugwueze.
She added that Ugwueze had torn her documents including her admission letter, saying that she would never go to school again.
“The Reason why he hit me recently on Wednesday was because I collected a phone to do my SIM Welcome-back,” she said, revealing pictures of injuries on her body which had resulted from the beating.
Some of the pictures obtained by our correspondent also showed blood marks on the wall of one of the rooms where the assaults had allegedly taken place.
It was also reported that on Friday, the two sisters were trying to flee and report the case when they were stopped by some people allegedly sent by their brother, who tried to forcefully bring them back home until passers-by intervened and the matter was transferred to Wuse Zone 3 police station and then to the State Criminal Investigation Department.
It was gathered that one of their brothers who were among those who crossed them on their way out, was eventually detained at the police station.
It was gathered that as of Friday when Civil Defence Official, Mr Ugwueze was invited by the police, he had yet to show up.
The Press reached out to Mr Ugwueze on Sunday, who said he only disciplined his sisters who were going the wrong way, and he had to put them in shape, adding that he had been responsible for their upbringing, including their admissions.
“I have six sisters and I am the one training all of them,” he said.
the Civil Defence Official, Mr Ugwueze said Amarachi was only 17 years plus and he disciplined her in front of their mother after the mother had reported to him.
“I have all my evidence of what she was doing that led to me flogging her. What led to me flogging her was because I asked her to give me her phone. I seized her first phone, I told her I don’t want her to use phone for now, or be on social media.
When asked about the assault on Chidinma, he stated, “I disciplined them, Chidinma is misleading Amarachi.”
Ugwueze said he had asked Amarachi to go and learn tailoring or go to the police college but she refused because of her boyfriend.
“The day I was going out to discipline Amarachi, I saw Chidinma coming out of a hotel.
“I had asked her to write an agreement with me that every Sunday she would go to church. I told her to join the choir but she refused.
Contrary to flogging them in his own house, the Civil Defence Official, Ugwueze said, “I flogged them in my family house. The immediate younger brother said I should not be the one flogging them that he is the one supposed to be flogging them that I am too big to be flogging them.”
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Mr Ugwueze also claimed that Amarachi’s admission letter and other documents were with him and that he had seized them until she decided to live a good life. Though she previously stated that he tore them.
The two sisters, who were now in hiding, cried out that their safety could not be guaranteed.
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