Dehumanised, rejected: The pathetic story of children linked to witchcraft

BY TONY NYONG, UYO
LAST Tuesday Vanguard Metro, VM, ran the story of a 95-year-old man who was killed by some members of the Ikpe Ikot Nkon community of Akwa Ibom State for being a wizard. The story also made a passing reference to the ordeal of some children either suspected of being members of witchcraft cult or afflicted by ailments associated with witches.

The children branded as witches or wizards, were subjected to all forms debasement and punishment. Worse still, they were also rejected by their parents and guardians and cast out in the cold. They were left wandering all over the village until the Village Head, Chief Udo Offiong Ekpenyong, came to their rescue by providing them temporary shelter  in his home.

Their story remains most pathetic as they wait for help to come to them from government and non-government quarters.

Idorenyin(r) with other children suspected of being members of witchcraft cult

Little Esther Etim Ekpenyong is nine years old and was until recently very healthy and happy like every other village child. She was attending the village primary school and was about going into Primary 3 when misfortune struck. Esther, according to the father, Etim Ekpenyong Akpan, woke up one fateful morning and started wobbling. The situation deteriorated in the afternoon, and by the evening of the same day she became crippled.

Esther has been taken to several hospitals, yet there is no improvement in her condition. She has also been taken to churches, and the only revelation is that the ailment is of the witchcraft world. Today Esther cannot even stand and has since discontinued her education.

Her story is that the grandmother bewitched her and took her legs to the witchcraft world. The limbs have grown unusually tiny for the one year four months she has been in this condition. The father, a palmwine tapper, is begging government to help take Esther to any hospital she could receive treatment and would be able to walk and continue her education.

SOME OF THE SUSPECTED VICTIMS ABANDONED BY PARENTS

Idorenyin Sunday Akpan who is eight years old  said he was initiated into witchcraft in Akara, by his grandmother’s friend, an elderly woman, who used another child of his age to lure him to the cult. Narrating the experience of his initiation, he said one fateful night he was taken  to  a place, where he found himself in a large crowd of witches, and was later instructed to bring his mother and he did.

What happened thereafter was that the mother died. The father, he said,  later discovered that he was the cause of the tragedy and took him to the maternal uncles who kept him for about two weeks and then returned him back to the father.

He informed that as soon as his maternal uncles left, his father  threatened to kill him but later threw him out of the house. Since then  Idorenyin had been sleeping in the bush and some times in the village market square where he feeds on food crumbs he picks from the ground.

He has a big scar from a hot iron pressed on his forehead as both punishment and a mark for people to easily identify him as a wizard. Today he lives at the mercy of the village head.

Inyene Nna Inyang may not be more than five years; the mother is late and the father has remarried. He was accused of bewitching the children of the father’s wife and so was driven out of the house, as a result of which he started sleeping either in the open hall of the primary school in the village, or at the veranda of the church.

Iniso Effiong Akpan, who is six years old boy and Nsikeme Ini Oko who is eight sleep in the bush on top of trees. They eat raw cassava, peas, banana, wild pineapples and any other edibles they find in the bush. But thanks to the village head, today they have found a home in his compound.

Although still very lean or emaciated, they are in dire need of food with nutritional value to help them recover.   Nsemeke Ini Okon who is about nine years old seems the worst affected. He bears a foul odour from suppurating fingers which he claimed were burnt by high ranking members of the witchcraft cult as a punishment for trying to rescue his father who he caused to be imprisoned. For now,  cannot use both hands to eat.

Given the starvation he has endured, it is indeed a great miracle that he has survived to tell his story.

For a clarion call has gone out to all and sundry to urgently come to aid of these unfortunate children in Ikpe Ikot Nkon.  Their plight is one that  beckcons on all philanthropists and non-governmental organisations to reach out and save the lives of these  children.