The trend of branding babies, young children and elderly persons as witches has been on the increase in Delta and Akwa-Ibom States, findings by The Point have revealed.
Many children and elderly people, especially females, have been accused of practicing witchcraft with the belief that they have intention of either ushering bad luck to their loved ones or causing their untimely deaths.
The accusations have ruined the lives of scores of persons as their family members either attempt to kill those who fall victims of being branded as witches, abandon or dehumanize them.
It was gathered that parents and family members throw up these allegations after they might have consulted self-acclaimed prophets and herbalists who manipulate their fears and give them the impression that their life challenges were caused by either their children or their grandparents.
In the past few months in Delta and Akwa-Ibom States, reports have shown that many children, babies and aged persons have been branded as witches by their parents and other loved ones who chain them up, starve, beat, and even throw them down storey buildings with intent of killing them.
Cases of parents attempting to set their children on fire have also been reported while others shun violence by simply disowning them and driving them to the streets.
Recently in the Asaba community, a single mother reportedly conspired with her boyfriend to kill a baby girl for allegedly being a witch.
The duo, whose identities are yet to be known, allegedly threw the two-year-old girl identified as Chinonso, from a story building downstairs after a prophet reportedly told them that the girl was responsible for the bad luck her mother was contending with in life.
A Delta-based human rights activist, Harrison Gwamnishu, who salvaged the baby after she was thrown down, explained that the woman and her boyfriend ran away after the matter was reported at GRA Police Station, Asaba.
Gwamnishu of a non-governmental organisation, Behind Bars, disclosed that the waist of Chinonso, who was rushed to a Specialist Hospital in Asaba, got dislocated, adding that her mother had inflicted several injuries on her body before throwing her out of their apartment.
According to Gwamnishu, there was a similar case of witchcraft allegation in the state about a month ago when some youths paraded an aged woman and branded her a witch.
“This issue of branding children and elderly people as witches is getting out of hand in Delta State. You will recall that we saved an elderly woman from being set ablaze by some youths last month when they paraded her and accused her of being a witch.
“Now, we have another case of a two-year-old girl whose mother threw away from a storey building in Asaba for allegedly being a witch. We were informed that the woman had visited a prophet who told her that the baby was fetching her ill luck before she decided to kill her in connivance with her boyfriend. But, thanks to God, Chinonso (victim) miraculously survived it.
“We took her to a Specialist Hospital in Asaba and she is fast recovering. However, we want to adopt and give her a better life and we have reported this issue at GRA Police Station. So, we will be needing assistance from members of the public for her welfare. Her mother and her boyfriend are on the run and we know that the long arm of the law will soon catch up with them,” he said.
Meanwhile, The Point learned from security sources that the fleeing woman has been arrested and detained at GRA Police Station, Asaba.
Similarly, in Akwa-Ibom State, hundreds of children have been accused of witchcraft. This phenomenon is rampant in Oron Local Government Area of the state.
Despite that the state government had in 2012 criminalized the branding of any children as witches; some still carry out the practice of violating rights of human beings because of this illegal indigenous belief.
While some torture and beat their children believed to be witches, others strip these children and abandon them to die.
One of the survivors of this inhumane treatment, Udeme, whose step-mother was accused of being a witch, explained that her father threw her out to the streets when she was in primary two.
Meanwhile, an 81-year-old woman, Mary Okon Okpoyo, has taken it upon herself to save children accused of witchcraft.
The octogenarian said she has no fewer than 22 children whose parents and family members abandoned for allegedly being witches that are receiving care in her facility.
Okpoyo, while lamenting increase in the practice, faulted some religious leaders who carry out deliverance on children accused of witchcraft.
