Uzoamaka Chukwu: Umahi orders victim’s return; but Girl rejects offer

The story of Uzoamaka Chukwu, the 15-year-old girl tortured and stripped naked in Ebonyi State has taken a different twist Governor David Umahi has ordered the return of the victim to the state within seven days or be declared wanted.
Umahi gave the order on Sunday when he visited the family of the teenager at Umunaga Uburu, where he said her return would enable the state government take full responsibility of her   rehabilitation and training.
However, Uzoamaka has turned down the governor’s offer, saying that she is happy and enjoying  her new home.  She advised the governor to help five other girls who suffered similar fate.
This order followed the adoption of the teenager by a Port-Harcourt-based Ebonyi lady who had perfected all the requirements for her adoption and offered her a scholarship and other rehabilitation incentives.
However, there seems to be a crisis with the resolve of Governor Umahi to reclaim the girl from her foster mother, Ms Rita Nnenna Anoh who had since commenced rehabilitation of the victim.
Governor Umahi said she must return within seven days or be declared wanted because she remained a property of the state.
“Government is asking that wherever she is, she should come back so that we can take over her training from secondary school to university level. We will also be able to rehabilitate her. We are giving seven days for her to come back. We don’t know where she is but we ask that she must return because she is the property of the state.”
“The matter is before a competent court; so we may not say much but on what we saw, we felt very bad as a people, as government and as brothers and sisters of Uzoamaka. We feel that is a gross violation of her right and man’s inhumanity to man. So we are very sad about it and that is why I directed that all of us should come to take over the responsibility of the girl.
But, Uzoamaka, who already has a new home in Port Harcourt, where she is being rehabilitated, asked that she should be allowed to remain where she currently stays because she is comfortable there.
She said: “I don’t want their scholarship. I feel okay and happy where I am. I am enjoying my new home and nobody should disturb me. I won’t go back to Ebonyi State. My new mummy will train me.”
in school. I don’t want their scholarship because before this incident, they never thought it wise to give me any scholarship; it is now they want to give me scholarship. They should go with their scholarship because I am comfortable where I am.”
She stated that five of her friends in her village suffered the same humiliation and advised the governor to give the scholarship to those victims, whose sad experiences have not been reported in the media. She said: “Five of my friends are also victims of what happened to me. If the governor wants to give me scholarship, he should give it to those ones because nobody has said anything about them.”
She claimed that the Ohaozara Development Centre Coordinator, who masterminded the assault, is still in office, and expressed fear of being attacked again if she returns to the state. She said: “As long as the coordinator is still in office and the governor is not even saying anything about removing him from office, I will not even step my feet in Ebonyi state, let alone taking any scholarship. The governor wants to bring me back so that I will still remain under a man who did such evil to me; how will I cope in that particular environment. I am not going anywhere; I am okay where I am. He should look for those