By Chidi Nkwopara
Christ mothers from Mgbishii, a sleepy rural community in Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area in Imo State, have cried out to the Catholic Archbishop of Owerri Ecclesiastical Province, His Grace, Dr. Anthony Obinna, over alleged attrocities being committed by their sons and daughers in the area.
The women visited Archbishop Obinna at the Maria Assumpta Catholic Cathedral, Owerri, where they complained that they were being raped by their own sons on daily basis.
“We are raped and molested by our own children. You cannot come to Mgbuishii and return home safely because of the crime,” the women told Archbishop Obinna.
They further said that they had complained to both the state government and other law enforcement agents but regretted that they were yet to find solutions to the atrocities committed by their children.
They said: “We are angry because government is not looking at our direction at all. We have been completely abandoned for years.
Now, we have no good roads, no electricity, no market and nothing is going on in our place. To make things worse, we are now suffering from insecurity.”
Continuing, the aggrieved women also revealed that their sons take over the roads leading to their community on each of their market days and rob people, adding that this explained why people had stopped coming to buy farm produce from their market.
No Police presence
While lamenting that there is no police presence in the community, the spokes-woman, however, expressed shock that when they report anything to the police, they ultimately found themselves in more trouble as they ended up being molested the more.
“Also, each time we report cases to the police and they manage to send their men at all, the criminals beat them (policemen) up because they (criminals) parade more sophisticated weapons than what the policemen have. We needed police escort to get here (Maria Assumpta Cathedral) and we will also need them to go back home,” the women said.
On lack of social amenities in the area, the spokeswoman said the community had no roads, primary or secondary schools as well as health facilities, adding that they had been completely abandoned by the various tiers of government, even as they pointed out to the Archbishop that most of them were already planning to relocate to safer communities in Rivers State.
“Even the Reverend Father in our place is complaining and threatening to go away. About two weeks ago, some reverend sisters visited our place and were waylaid on the road and robbed. We have a lot of problems and that is why the women have come to complain to the Archbishop, who is our father in the Lord”, the women added.
Responding, Obinna commi-serated with the women over their plight and pleaded with them not to take laws into their hands.
While stressing the need for proper upbringing of children by parents in the fear of the Lord, the cleric, however, recalled some bizarre things that are now happening in the society. He prayed and blessed the women for being courageous enough to bring the sordid happenings to limelight. Vanguard
