4 female children branded as witches, rescued in Akwa Ibom State

4 female children branded as witches, rescued in 

Akwa Ibom State

They were rescued on Oct 25, 2016, and an eyewitness who posted it on Facebook, wrote:

"Four female children were yesterday rescued by a good Samaritan around 1:00 AM in the night.

The children whose origins are yet to be identified said they were told in a prayer house that they were witches, an allegation which compelled their parent to abandoned them in another prayers house which they went for deliverance, for years without bringing them food.

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Their parent later came to the church at the instance of the pastor, pick them and put them in a waiting car which drove them to the Abak bridge and dropped them there.

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The children were malnourished and seen with wounds, bruises, and scars in different parts of their body indicative of variant degrees of torture, which of course are not uncommon with children who suffer similar faith consequent upon witchcraft stigmatization.

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'My father said he's afraid of God, he would have killed us as instructed by the prophets." one of the children said.

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A right activist said after the rescue: "Children have continued to be abandoned in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria over witchcraft allegation by parents after desperate and nouveau riche pastors and prophets label witches/wizards and made their parents force them on the streets if not killed. .

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These children were lucky to be rescued yesterday in the wee hours of the night at Abak new bridge otherwise, they would have been picked by the lurking human traffickers or ritual killers who maraud the streets in search of children for diabolic purposes."