Court orders Adamawa suspected witches to heal three year old
A Yola Magistrates Court on Monday ordered seven defendants to restore the health of a three year old girl whom they allegedly bewitched with a strange illness.
The Magistrate Umar Gangs-led Criminal Area Court 1, gave th defendants 24 hours to comply with the order.
According to reports, the matter involved a 60 year old woman, Halima Jonta of Dumne town, in the Song Local Government Area of Adamawa State. Also joined in the case were five kids, said to be between the ages of four to six.
The defendants were arrested and arraigned over allegations that they inflicted the victim with a life threatening illness.
During the court sitting, Jonta said she and two other alleged witches had killed seven people in seven years since she joined the cult in Dumne town.
The defendants who were apprehended in Dumne, confessed to have bewitched the child and accused one another and other relations as being responsible for initiating them into the cult.
They claimed that efforts by them to resolve the child’s illness proved abortive, adding that one Dudu, now at large, was the only person who could undo the spell.
Presiding over the matter, Gangs ordered that Dudu be arrested with immediate effect.
The magistrates said the court would hold them responsible if the health condition on the child deteriorated.
He lamented that the affected minors had not reached the age that they could be sent to a remand home, let alone a custodial centre, and wondered how the children were initiated into the cult.