Mr Edet Etok-Akpan is in police net for torturing his six year-old daughter, Edidiong under the pretext of witchcraft. The 42-year-old man said a prophetess had pronounced his daughter as 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.
His daughter 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.”
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.
In the words of a
lawyer with the Basic Rights Counsel, Mr. James Ibor, “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... one of the neighbours called him and he in turn informed the police...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.”
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.
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