The herbalist had produced a vest he pronounced bulletproof. Then to test it, he had put it on his hapless young relative and fired deadly shots to the lads’ chest. Of course, the outcome was predictable…
At the beginning of February, one Festus Akaninyene called his two young daughters to go with him down Uyanga bush path in the forest of Akamkpa in the central part of Cross River State. At night, on getting to where he reckoned would be really far out for them in their condition, he left them on the dark bush path and turned back home alone.
Their condition? Just before leaving, he had called them and served them an unusual treat – some bottles of malt. The malt had tasted a little funny; no mind, it was from Daddy!
However his sinister nocturnal movement, going out with his daughters at night then returning very late without the children had aroused some suspicion. On a tipoff, the police went down Uyanga bush path and found the younger daughter, a girl of about eight, dead. The eleven year old was in the throes of death but managed, with her last breathe to tell the cops all that had happened.
Fifty three year old Festus was apprehended and confessed that he had laced the malt drinks he gave the girls with poison before leaving the children for dead. Even now it is just three months since, and the case is already cold.
In 2016 the Enugu State Police Command announced that a herbalist Ekene Oluka had murdered his thirteen yea old kinsman, Obuneneme Oluka. The police were on the lookout for Oluka but with the absence of investigative journals like Newswatch on the scene, we have not heard whether or not he is still at large.
The herbalist had produced a vest he pronounced bulletproof. Then to test it, he had put it on his hapless young relative and fired deadly shots to the lads’ chest. Of course, the outcome was predictable, the lad died instantly and the herbalist fled the area.
Most of us saw the pitiable photos of an abandoned child ‘witch’ who was rescued from a rubbish dump in Uyo by a foreign charity worker. HIS OWN MOTHER had left him there claiming the infant was a witch until he was rescued after eight months outside in the streets, naked.
These incidents are happening everywhere and their recurrence is a clear indication that the preventive measures are not working as deterrents.
Indeed to their credit, some states notably Akwa Ibom and Lagos have domesticated the Child Rights Act. But the enforcement has not been adequate and children are being brutalized and killed at an alarming rate. This can be seen by the stream of media reports. More worrisome are the neighbourhood incidents that go unreported and for which justice is never done.
These victims are minors; they are dependents. They are children who frequently are wards of their killers.
Just last month a mother fed her infant son a drink of kerosene, killing him instantly. Her claim was that she had put kerosene in a beverage can, same way she puts water (whoever does that?), and had “mistakenly” given the boy, spitting and rejecting it, the kero drink.
I can’t but wonder if the teenager with the herbalist had been coerced into the whole vest test; whether or not, on a minor or anyone, it was a dastardly deed.
The mother of the poisoned daughters in Akamkpa had died and left them. I believe that their father was completely fed up with looking after them and so hatched a plan to kill them and leave their bodies far away from home to avoid suspicion.
So: the kero killer mother, the human – guinea pig – tester herbalist, the malt-piosoning father – how many more will prey on innocent children before there is any action?
We all saw the pitiable sight of a ten year old boy, chained hand and foot in a locked room for moths by his father, where he was starved for stealing a piece of meat. That one was in Ogun State where the Governor’s Wife, Mrs Funso Amosun took him into her care – but how many of such children can just one person handle?
Some years ago a British TV channel aired a documentary on child witches (“Dispatches” Saving Africa’s Witch Children, Channel 4) which was a real exposé and featured Akwa Ibom. The then Governor’s wife Mrs Unoma Akpabio was galvanized into action. She set up a dedicated facility for children branded as witches, funded by the State Government but she administered it. She did that creditably and then handed the facility over to the current Governor’s wife. But then, Mrs Martha Emmanuel now has to cater for the welfare of the two hundred children currently in the place – that is a lot to handle! My commendation here must also go to Anja Ringgren Loven, the charity worker who rescued the toddler from the refuse dump and literally brought him back from the dead, naming him Hope (Pictured, courtesy The Nation).
Victimization, dehumanization, abuse, torture, heartless killing of minors: all these have gone on far too long unchecked. I want to suggest to the government at the federal level that there be an agency put in place just like The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, RSPCA. This new one would be replicated in all the states and there, even children whose lives are in clear danger, and who are able to escape their immediate environment, may be able to run in and have their lives saved.
The Nigerian child has a right to life. And are these wicked parents and guardians going to be left to attack all children under their care and mercilessly kill their other children?
The savage torture and slaughter of minors surely requires sterner stuff!
So the other thing that is urgent here is the establishment of special courts for Harming/Murdering Minors. Those wicked elements of society, evil parents must be apprehended then tried at these special courts and possibly locked away for good. So they stop producing, then savaging children anymore.
