More horror in Nigeria. A man tortured, imprisoned and starved his six-year-old daughter because a woman at his church who purports to be a “prophet” told him his little girl is 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 to PUNCH Metro 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.
My friend James Ibor, a lawyer with the Basic Rights Counsel, called the police after neighbors called him.
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.
What was that about religion and compassion again?
You are free to abuse anyone you want in any horrific fashion you decide — obligated to, as a matter of fact — if you can justify it using religion.
I dearly wish some court, somewhere, would rule that abuse is abuse and criminally actionable, no matter what justification is used. But I’m not holding my breath on that one.
To think that the couple went to pray in the house of the Lord after treating their own flesh and blood in that barbaric manner, just beggars belief. I hope the grandmother nurtures the child so much that she begins to have some semblance of a normal life – after such inhumane treatment having been meted out to her. The wee girl is lucky in one way that she was spared her life, but, sadly, the suffering will remain with her forever. Abuse of that gargantuan nature can could never be erased.
Violence towards children is a fiercely defended parental right everywhere – except maybe Sweden – and probably throughout history. Look at the furore when the idea of banning corporal punishment is raised in a civilised country like the UK. (I don’t know what the US is like but I expect it’s no better).
IMO this is a bigger issue than religion and precedes it, since religion is, after all, man made and therefore made by the subjects of abuse by the previous generation.
I expect that all religions have the 4th commandment in some form or other while practically none expect adherents to ‘honour their sons and daughters’. And since they’re all made up, since there are no gods, this aspect must also be man made.
We tend think that children should be treated the way we were treated – after all, they were our parents and they did love us, didn’t they? Surely?
So, by all means, criticise religions for promoting this behaviour and for failing, as always, in moral leadership, but remember, the problem comes from us, not from the gods.
Unfortunately, this, too, is religion.