Ota Awa, 55, is an indigene of Odo Compound, Akanu Ohafia, in Ohafia Local Government Area of Abia State. Awa is bedridden with a severe stroke which has paralysed both his legs. His stickiness is so serious that the man could hardly stand with his two legs. If he wants to use the rest room for instance, one of his children will carry him on the back like a baby and bring him back thereafter. He hardly leaves the particular spot on the floor where he lies in the pigsty-like hovel that passes for their family house.

To cap Awa’s pathetic condition, his wife, Margaret is an asthmatic patient whose condition has made it practically impossible for her to engage in strenuous activities to eke out a living for the family. It will therefore not be an overstatement to say that the Awa’s family, apart from the devastating impact of the debilitating ailments of the couple, is on all fours wallowing in abject poverty.

If the present combined conditions of this family have remained a source of serious worry to them, the alleged heinous activities of their neighbour, Emea Ibe, a self-professed native doctor, who was alleged to have harassed, brutalised and dehumanised the Awas, have become a source of nightmare to the family.

The latest onslaught against this sickly and poverty-stricken family by their supposed neighbour was the alleged recent brutalisation of the 10-year-old son of Awa by the native doctor, who came to reside in his father’s house at Ania, where he shares a common boundary with the Awas.

Genesis

When Saturday Sun visited the area recently to get a firsthand information on the incident, it was gathered that both families have been living like cats and dogs over the years, with the Awas enduring all this while the atrocious behaviour of the native doctor who is said to have been unleashing mayhem on the former without blinking an eyelid and without anybody querying him.

According to people in the area, on Sunday, April 23, Ibe, perhaps, emboldened by the docile attitude of people living within the neighbourhood towards his often hostile attitude against the Awas, went for the kill.

On that day, it was gathered that the native doctor, who was said to have earlier accused Friday Awa, 10, the seventh son of Mr. Awa, of killing his sheep, reportedly went to the boy’s house and forcefully took him away from his parents, to his shrine, threatening to sacrifice the boy to the deities.

Little Friday gave an account of his ordeal that day. Hear him: “The native doctor accused me of killing his sheep way back in January. Since then, every day, he would come looking for my mother. Even when she’s naked, he would come after her and beat her mercilessly before my father who is bedridden as a result of the stroke he is suffering from.

“He does not have respect for our father. Even at nights, he will come after my mother, who in most cases will run away from our house and sleep outside to Avoid being maltreated by the native doctor.

“Before the incident, the native doctor had boasted severally in the presence of my father that since I was the one my father loves most among his children, that he would kill and sacrifice me to his deities.”

According to the little lad, on Sunday, April 23, when people had gone to church, Ibe came to their house and told his mother he had forewarned her he was going to use him (Friday) as sacrifice to his deities.

The poor boy said before anyone could know what was happening, the native doctor had forcefully hauled him away.

“My mother put up some resistance, and after giving her a good beating, she fell down on the ground and became unconscious. When my immediate senior sister attempted to come to my rescue, the native doctor used the machete he was holding on her and she fell to the ground too, after receiving severe injuries. The man later took me to his shrine.”

Chained inside the shrine

Friday further narrated his ordeals inside the shrine of the native doctor. “When he took me to his shrine, he chained me in front of the deities in the shrine, tying me with a red fabric. He used the machete to cut the flesh at my back in bits, after using it to hit my head severally.

“As blood was gushing out of my body, he forced me to lie down in the pool of my own blood on the bare floor of his shrine.”

The little boy said as the herbalist was torturing him, he wanted to shout for help, but he explained that the herbalist used his hand to close his mouth. “He warned me that he would use the gun he kept beside him to kill me if people were attracted to the shrine through my shouts,” Friday told Saturday Sun.

Unending torture

Friday informed the reporter that after inflicting severe bodily injuries on him, the native doctor dismissed him. He said when his mother saw what the herbalist had done to him, she fell down and wept profusely.

But that appeared to be just a tip of the iceberg. Friday further told the reporter: “When we thought my travail was over, he came again to our house and told my mother he was taking me back to his shrine and that he had invited some youths who would interrogate me over his missing sheep and that I must answer yes to any question they put across to me if I wanted to remain alive.

“At the shrine again, I saw about 10 youths who asked me if I knew anything about the claimed missing sheep, to which I said no,” he recalled.

The boy said his answer infuriated the youths who instantly maltreated him, hitting him with sticks and machete, and inflicting more injuries on him.

“They were seriously beating me, pressuring me to admit that I killed and stole the native doctor’s sheep. Initially, I did not admit that because I never stole the sheep, but when the beating became much and unbearable, I had to admit to save myself from further punishment. When I adhered to their bidding and admitted I stole the sheep, instead of letting me off the hook as they promised, they rather increased the punishment. At a point, I became unconscious and they left me, thinking I was dead.”

I never killed any sheep

When asked if he actually killed or stole the sheep in question, Friday’s response was firmly in the negative. But he explained what he claimed occurred. “In January, we went somewhere. When we came back, we saw the sheep dead inside his compound. After a while, he came to our house and accused us of being responsible for the sheep’s death.

“At first, he accused my younger brother of being responsible. Later, he said it was me who killed the sheep and since that time, we have known no peace. Occasionally, he would come to our house and deal with us, including our mother, the way that pleased him, knowing that our father is very sick and nobody will come to our rescue.”

Friday, while pleading that those who treated him like an animal should be brought to book, he called on the Abia State government to come to the family’s rescue by relocating his penniless family far away from the native doctor, noting that “he has remained a torn in our flesh”.

Natives vouch for victim

Natives of Akanu Ohafia have vouched for Friday, saying he was too small a boy to be involved in the killing and stealing of a sheep.

An official in the palace of the traditional ruler of Akanu Ohafia, Prince Onwukwe Ulu, said it was wrong for the native doctor to have chained the boy and then invited the youths that inflicted such injuries on him.

“Personally, I condemned their action. Even if the boy was guilty of the offence, he was still too small a boy to receive such punishment.”

The youth leader of Akanu Ohafia, Uma Kalu Onyiri, also condemned what the native doctor and his cohorts did. “If the boy were to be my brother, I will defend him with whatever I have, because they treated him in the most callous manner.

“Those who dehumanised the boy are on their own. Akanu has no room to defend such bestiality; the boy has not grown to the level of what they did to him.

“If the boy was actually involved in stealing a sheep, I wonder how he would have done that, considering his age. The best thing that should have been done was to caution him as he was not up to the age of even taking him to the police, not to talk of the type of punishment that was meted to him.”

A female relation of Friday was livid at the torture endured by the lad. “This is not the first or even the tenth time I am getting complaints from the boy’s family of the ill-treatment they are getting from that young man who calls himself a native doctor. In other cases, we do not complain much since they are neighbours and they are related from the paternal side and we take it from that angle.

“But this time around, seeing blood gushing out all over the boy’s body, we felt it is not what we will keep quiet about any longer.

“After seeing what happened, we didn’t take the law into our hands; we decided to inform the police at Ohafia about the incident. But unfortunately, the police have not done anything to arrest the culprits.”

She was not happy that despite formal complaint to the police, they were yet to arrest the culprits.

Mother’s appeal

Friday’s mother, Margret summed the scenario up this way: “The boy’s offence is not killing a sheep or whatever, his greatest crime is not having anybody to speak up for him because each time the native doctor maltreats us and we complain, nobody comes to speak for us.

“So, this young man, Emeri saw it as an avenue to always suppress us, to always treat us anyhow, without minding the condition of my husband who is seriously down with stroke, and myself who is also sick.”

She was of the view that since the native doctor can do fetish things and kill someone spiritually, he should be made to sign an undertaking that from this moment henceforth, he has washed off his hands from her family, failing which whatever happens to the family will be put on him.

“The government and security agencies should hear this, that someone who has placed himself above the law is always tormenting a particular family because nobody will speak for them.”

Another native of the area, who gave his name as Kalu, said the herbalist has always boasted that people in government, the police, army and the entire Akanu people are afraid of him, and as such, sees himself as being above the law. He insisted that the man should be brought to book.

Culprits yet to be arrested

Saturday Sun gathered that the native doctor, Ibe and the others accused by the Awa family have yet to be apprehended by the police despite a formal report that has been made against them.

There were reports in some news outlets that the culprits have fled the community. That, the reporter gathered, was the reason the reporter was unable to reach them for their reactions. When contacted, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) for Ohafia, Mr. Uyo Uyo confirmed the incident. But he said the native doctor had not been arrested. “We went there looking for him, but we could not find him. We are still looking for him. Anytime I see him, I will arrest him.

“We have even told the youths to assist us, that anytime he is found, they should report to us. You know Akanu is far from our station,” Mr. Uyo told Saturday Sun. (Saturday Sun)

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