A forty-year-old man, John Friday Akpan, from Akwa Ibom State but resident in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, is now explaining to the police how he allegedly heeded the advice of a herbalist, one DrOkokon, and tagged his two children, Elisha Udobong and Esther, as witches.
Akpan, who allegedly subjected the two children, aged 12 and 6 respectively, to harrowing treatment by nailing them to a plank and locking them up without food for days, was said to have told the police the children took his money to their “master in the witchcraft world and therefore deserved no mercy”.
The children, whose emaciated and dirty appearance replicated the images of starving children in famine ravaged Somalia and war torn Sudan following weeks of starvation, said they survived on water suppliedby one of the man’s kids by another woman. “Our sister,Peace, usually brought us water inside the hut when our father and our mother had gone out”, Esther said.
The father, the kids said, used to reside in Akpabuyo with the family where he sent them to a private school, Regent Nursery and Primary School, Ikot Nkanda,but when their mother died and the man took another wife, Iquo, the story changed. Elisha, in JSS1, said: “My mother (stepmother ) said the woman who used to live near our house in Akpabuyo gave us food and she put something in the food and when we ate it we changed to birds at night and took out father’s money to our master in the witchcraft world”.
According to the boy, he was alleged to have taken 4 000 naira while Esther took 2000 and that angered theirfather and step mother who started beating them and denying them food “becausethey said we took the money to our master”. The maltreatment became worsewhen they relocated to Calabar and took up residence at 23 Akpandem Street, off Edim Otop Street at the municipality. “He (father) nailed us to one big plank and beat us that we should bring back the money but we had no money to give to him”, Esther said.
Unable to get back his money from the children, Akpan allegedly went for the final onslaught against the kids by locking them up in an abandoned hut where he lived so that they could die. “When the situation became too bad, neighbours, worried that thechildren may die and the police descend on them, raised the alarm and reported to the police at the Airport Division who swooped on the parents andgot them arrested”, Mr James Ibor, a child rights activist, told Sunday Vanguard.
He said the DPO of the Airport Division called him “at about 11 am on Friday, March 8 that there was another case of children stigmatisation as witches and I went to the station andbehold, what I saw made meweep”.
Ibori said the children were so hungry and weak that it was apparent that they would have died if they hadnot, been rescued. “They were so weak that we had togive them water first, then some fruits; even at that thesystem of the girl could not accommodate the fruits and she had to visit the toilet a few minute after she ate thebanana I gave to them”.
DSP John Umoh, the spokesman of the Cross River State Police Command, said efforts were on to arrest Okokon the herbalist so that “he and theparents can appear in court to answer charges on felony”.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/03/father-nails-own-kids-to-plank-says-they-are-witches/

What a wicked man! Another first frm d land of d rising sun, and first 4 me.
Front page MOD.

I know all these were initiated by their step mother. She would have just poison them instead of labelling them witches thereby allowing their father to kill them slowly. Thank God for neighbours' intervention.

Stories that touch. I pray that more NGOs would be interested in curbing this child witchcraft stuff.

Horrible news all the time.

ecosanders: What a wicked man! Another first frm d land of d rising sun, and first 4 me.
Front page MOD.

so when did akwa ibom or calabar became land of rising sun? are u high?

A father frustrated by GEJ's Policies turns to his Kids.. Mtcheeew!!

ecosanders: What a wicked man! Another first frm d land of d rising sun, and first 4 me.
Front page MOD.

big shiit,so u can't afford an atlas Ur linage must have disowned u.

Hehe.

Maybe he thought they would resurrect. What a primitive, barbaric act.

Abeg 'nail' as in crucify?

Wicked dude!

Cross river and akwa ibom people wetin all these small children do una enh ?! Una own don too much o ha

nemesis of poverty...we neva hear dis kind tale from ajebutter family...na only aje pako dey discover say him kids na evil....poverty why now....?

why do Calabar people fear witchcraft so much?

They keep beating and accusing their kids when the real Ogbanje's are in Aso Rock

Valiantvaliant: Abeg 'nail' as in crucify?

Are u a leaner?
Mtchew

ecosanders: What a wicked man! Another first frm d land of d rising sun, and first 4 me.
Front page MOD.

^^^And what's your own 'land', let's see if we can think of a few nasty firsts from there.......douche bag!

Picshur pls

the father, step mother and herbalist shouldnt go unpunished. For chrish sake dis is wickedness and did some say dey are his children. I say kudos the child right activist.

rezzy: I know all these was initiated by their step mother. She wont have just poison them instead of labelling them witches thereby allowing their father to kill them slowly. Thank God for neighbours' intervention.

Seconded.

AkwaIbom ayaya oo

I wonder hw one can be so convinced that his/her child is a witch and would subject that child to such despicable treatment.Why is this so rampant in that region of the SE?Is it the myth that's thriving there at the time?

Valiantvaliant: Abeg 'nail' as in crucify?

Yes o! Can u imagine?

What's it with Akwa Ibom and witches. De use am swear 4 dem?

In a rastaman voice #eye for an eye#

poverty and ignorance at its peak

chiover: big shiit,so u can't afford an atlas Ur linage must have disowned u.

una b children of d rising sun? Abi wetin b una own, abi i mention Igbo? So una dey deny dem nw, abeg tel me where dat 2nd in command(Effiong) 2 dat man wey Run go CV Cm FRM.

Beretta92: I wonder hw one can be so convinced that his/her child is a witch and would subject that child to such despicable treatment.Why is this so rampant in that region of the SE?Is it the myth that's thriving there at the time?

Akwa Ibom and Cross River state are in the South-South b4 you go to Who wants to be a Millionaire and say they are in the South-East. And don't worry, U don't have to thank me, U are welcome.

ecosanders: una b children of d rising sun? Abi wetin b una own, abi i mention Igbo? So una dey deny dem nw, abeg tel me where dat 2nd in command(Effiong) 2 dat man wey Run go CV Cm FRM. una b children of d rising sun? Abi wetin b una own, abi i mention Igbo? So una dey deny dem nw, abeg tel me where dat 2nd in command(Effiong) 2 dat man wey Run go CV Cm FRM. una b children of d rising sun? Abi wetin b una own, abi i mention Igbo? So una dey deny dem nw, abeg tel me where dat 2nd in command(Effiong) 2 dat man wey Run go CV Cm FRM. una b children of d rising sun? Abi wetin b una own, abi i mention Igbo? So una dey deny dem nw, abeg tel me where dat 2nd in command(Effiong) 2 dat man wey Run go CV Cm FRM.

Who let the dogs out? Who who who who who!

Until that Helen ukpabio or whatever her name is arrested, child abuse will continue unabated in South East. Another ticking time bomb. One day the child witches will react back and then we will not be able to handle it. Unsubstantiated claims against defenseless children just to make money or fame is wrong on all levels. It is a shame that even the educated ones believe in this nonsense.
If there are so many child witches in that land, then it is only sensible to say there will be plenty adult witches too.

Why are they so callous and act in bad manner in that state by calling their children wizard, witches or whatever.

For God shake, people of other states have children and they are not witches or wizard.

Government suppose to uproot that believe and get ALL those at root of the problem behind the bar.

Smh