12th February, 2017
Mercy Ekwere, 44, from Edo Esit Eket, Akwa Ibom State, escaped death this week, after police dispersed witch-hunters who cordoned her, tied her hands and legs, then tortured her with sticks and machetes, to a state of coma.
Her brother’s daughter who’s about 12 years old had been dragged to the town, over allegations of witchcraft as a result of the death of a 5-year old child.
After a lengthy torture, the girl was forced to tell the witch-hunters that her aunt, Ms. Ekwere, took the deceased child to the coven and strangled her to death.
Ekwere said that as she arrived the scene, she was hurled with insults and abuses by a mammoth crowd and was not given a chance to say anything, only for a mob to descend on her mercilessly. .
Policemen, invited by her brother, Emmanuel, eventually came to their rescue. When she returned to her husband, she was not allowed entrance to the house.
She eventually made her way to the Child’s Right And Rehabilitation Network (CRARN) in Ikot Afaha, Eket, where she has been given a temporary refuge.