A 60-year-old woman, Halima Jonta, is among seven self-confessed ‘witches’, who were charged to court for allegedly inflicting a three-year-old girl with sickness in Adamawa State.
Other persons charged along with Jonta were five minors and one other woman said to be at large.
The 60-year-old and the minors were brought to the Area Court 1, Yola, by a community leader and Sarkin Mayu Adamawa, Kabiru Garba, after he learnt about the state of health of the three-year-old girl.
Jonta confessed to the court that she and two other women had killed seven people in the seven years she had been practising witchcraft.
In the case of the afflicted girl, Jonta said she and the five minors, aged between four and six years, as well as a woman on the run, had bewitched her.
The girl was brought to court by her parents, looking very ill.
The kid ‘witches’ confessed to the court that the old woman, Jonta and the other woman now at large, asked them to tie the three-year-old spiritually and put a stone in her stomach.
They also said the soul of a dead person was planted in her.
“With the soul of the dead in her, she can’t live a normal life,” they added.
They said they had untied her and removed the stone in her but that the curse remained because removing it was beyond their power.
They explained that it was the woman at large, identified simply as Dudu, who could remove the curse.
Ruling on the matter with particular reference to the alleged kid witches, the Criminal Area Court 1 judge, Umar Gangs, expressed worry that little children still far from adulthood had been introduced into witchcraft.
He ordered that Dudu should be found by all means and brought before the court and gave the accused a 24-hour ultimatum to remove all that they had inflicted the three-old-girl with and restore her to perfect health.
