A 42-year-old father, Mr. Edet Etok-Akpan, is currently being quizzed at the
headquarters of the Cross River State Police Command in Calabar for torturing
his six-year-old daughter, Edidiong, as a result of a church prophetess’
pronouncement that the girl was a witch.
Edidiong was beaten by her
father and locked up in a room with her hands, mouth and face bound for four
days before she was rescued by neighbours.
It was learnt that Etok-Akpan
started beating her on February 19 after an unidentified prophetess in their
church told him that Edidiong was the witch responsible for the stagnancy in his
life.
Narrating her ordeal to PUNCH Metro on Monday,
Edidiong said after the beatings which lasted for some days, her father on
February 21 tied her hands with a cord and bound her mouth with a piece of
cloth.
She said, “He locked me in the inner room of our house and he
never gave me food and never allowed me to go to school.”
The girl, who
said she is in basic three at Femos Nursery and Primary School located at 24
Etyin Abasi Street, said she was becoming weak after days without food or
water.
Luck, however, came her way on February 23, when another child,
who lives with her parents in the same 42 Atakpa Street, came to their veranda
to look for broom and discovered her.
Giving details of how she was
rescued, a lawyer with the Basic Rights Counsel, Mr. James Ibor, said, “The girl
went to Edidiong’s veranda to look for a broom and heard the sound of the girl
like that of someone battling with her last breath.
“She looked through
the louvers of the window and saw Edidiong bound on the floor and raised the
alarm. Her parents and other neighbours rushed to the place and saw Edidiong
bound inside her apartment.”
Ibor said one of the neighbours called him
and he in turn informed the police.
He said, “When the policemen and I
got there, we saw a crowd gathered outside. We were able to rescue the child by
breaking the door.
“The girl was very weak because she had been without
food for days and so we had to give her water first, then after about ten
minutes we gave her milk before solid food an hour later.”
Ibor said the
culprit and his wife had locked up the girl in the inner room of their two-room
apartment and went to church, adding that the girl was presently living with her
grandmother in another part of the town.
The state Police Public
Relations Officer, Mr. John Umoh, said Etok-Akpan, who is from Akwa Ibom State,
had been arrested and would soon appear in court to answer charges of
felony.
He said, “To tie a small girl’s hand and mouth and lock her in a
room for some days without food is a grievous offence, he shall soon appear in
court.”
Umoh, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, warned parents to always
treat their children with care, adding criminalities are increasing daily
because parents had abandoned their responsibilities to their wards.
He
also said the police would visit the church where the father got the
prophecy.
Source: Punch
No comments:
Post a Comment