WITCHCRAF: Dad baths kids with hot water

In this Compuer, Jet and globalized age, peole still believe in the existence of witchcraft. Well I wonder how a father can bath his own children in hot boiling water, in his believe they are witches! If I still understand how witch craft exists, a child cannot choose to be a witch if he/she understand the negative stigma associated with it in our present society. A news on Lagos's daily PM news baffles me...

 A man identified as Emmanuel David Akpan and his wife have been arrested by the police in Calabar, Cross River State for inflicting grievous injuries on his three children by bathing them with hot water on the allegation that they are witches.

The husband and wife, who is the kids’ stepmother, are currently cooling their heels in the cells of the Federal Housing Police Station, Calabar. They told the police that they allegedly lost contact with the mother of the kids about two years ago when the marriage between her and David Akpan ended in divorce.

The suspects were alleged to have bathed the three little girls, Imaobong (7), Nyenime (5) and Joy David Akpan, with hot water, after binding their hands and legs with electric cables.

Akpan’s alleged violent act was reported to the police by two non-government organisations, Women, Youth and Children Upliftment Foundation (WYCUT) and Basic Rights Counsel, headed by Mrs. Lilian Ekanem and Barrister James Ibor respectively.

At the police station, Akpan said his provocation stemmed from some nightmares he had in which his three daughters often attacked him, attempting to kill him in the dream.

Besides, Akpan, who is motor mechanic, said he was convinced that the kids were responsible for his poverty, as all his efforts to become rich were allegedly being thwarted by the suspected witches.

In his words, “these children don’t want me to progress. They have tied my prosperity in the witch world and since I started working in my workshop, I have not achieved anything”.

Akpan claimed that one of the three children, Imaobong, had confessed to his pastor and neighbours that she was a witch, and that the girl reportedly claimed that she was initiated at birth by her mother, who was said to be at large.

The three kids, who gave their statements at the police station, said they had no place to stay and that they always slept at the verandah of their father’s house and other open places. This prompted the State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare to take custody of the kids.... PM news