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
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-punch
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