The Cross River State Police Command has nabbed a 40-year-old man, John Friday Akpan who allegedly nailed his two children to a cross on allegations they are witches.
The Akwa Ibom State-born man, residing in Akpabuyo Local Government Area, LGA of Cross River, reportedly starved his children to a skeletal point after a native doctor branded them witches.
The children, Elisha and Esther Akpan, aged 12 and 6 respectively, said they were rescued by a Good Samaritan in the area.
They narrated how their father and stepmother locked them up in a hut without food and water for several weeks following the allegation, South-South News reports.
According to the report, Akpan was a native doctor identified as Dr. Okokon told Akpan that the two children were witches and were the ones bringing misfortune to the family and he decided to give the children the Jesus Christ punishment.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Irene Ugbo, who confirmed the report in a statement, said Akpan, his wife, and the native doctor would be charged to court and made to face the full wrath of the law.
Meanwhile, the PPRO said the children who looked emaciated and malnourished, said their father accused them of taking his money to their ‘master in the witchcraft coven and therefore deserve no mercy.’
“Elisha who is the older child, narrated their ordeal in the hands of their father saying, “Our daddy said we are witches and locked us in a thatched hut for many weeks without food and water. Our sister, Peace, usually bring us water inside the hut when our father and our mother went gone out.
“My mother (stepmother), said the woman who used to live near our house in Akpabuyo gave us food and she put something (witchcraft spell) in the food and when we ate it, we changed to birds at night and took our fathers money to ‘our master’ in the witchcraft world.
“Our daddy said I took N4, 000 while Esther took N2, 000 to our master. This is something I don’t even understand. I am not a witch. My sister too is not a witch. We are children of God. It is because our own mother is dead that they do this to us.
“Our daddy nailed our hands to a cross because he says we are witches,”” the statement quoted the children to have disclosed.
Recall that the Child Right And Rehabilitation Network, CRARN, Akwa Ibom State Chapter, had yesterday rescued four female children who were abandoned after being branded witches by their parents.
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