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.
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.” and called the police
source: punch
