Two children from Okobo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State had in the past one month turned the streets to their home, after their relatives tortured them and sent them out of their homes for alleged witchcraft, Punch had reported. The children identified as Mary Odiong and Ekong Asua had disclosed that they were thrown out to the streets after it was alleged that they were responsible for the death of their relatives.
Odiong, while narrating the reason she was thrown out of their home said her relatives blamed her for the death of one of her uncles who allegedly contracted AIDS and died.
“The people in my family called me and started asking me questions whether I was a witch and why I killed my uncle. I told them that I did not know anything about what they were talking about.
‘’They started beating me. They hit me with cutlasses. They cut my buttocks with knives.
‘’After the beating became too much, I lost consciousness. Later, I woke up to find myself in a bush. I have been living on the streets since last month without food and shelter,” she said.
Narrating his own, Esua said, his parents died of “strange ailment,”. She said that after the incident, his uncles accused him of killing his parents and referring to him as a wizard.
He narrated thus: “My uncles told me that they went somewhere to find out why my parents died. They said they were told that I killed both of them through witchcraft. They tied my hands and started beating me up with native sugarcane and asked me to confess.
‘’When I insisted that I knew nothing about the death of my parents, they took me to a bush, where I met Odiong. Both of us have been living on the streets since then,” he said.
Report says the two kids were reportedly taken off the streets by volunteers from African Children Aid Education and Development Foundation. They have since been taken to the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, for treatment and care.
Comments