These children were tied up, beaten and left in a bush after being tagged 'witches' (photo)

These children were tied up, beaten and left in a bush after being tagged 'witches' (photo)

- Two sisters who were labeled as witches shared the gruesome things they were made to go through

- The children explained how they almost died in their hands of their uncles in Cross River

Two children allegedly tagged witches have narrated their experiences in the hands of their uncles in Cross River state. The sisters identified as Aniema, 10 and Mary, 13 were accused of being witches.

With the accusation on ground, the children were made to suffer a great deal as a way of torturing the evil spirit in them.

Adiaha Akpan, the stepsister to the girls had started the whole thing when she said she dreamt that the two sisters took her child away from her and tried to kill her.

The two sisters were tortured so they could confess to being witches.

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The children were being traced by CrossRiverWatch to Asanting village located in Ikono local government area of Akwa Ibom. Their father had taken them there after they were almost killed by their uncles.

Read the terrible fate the girls were made to suffer below:

"That faithful day I was taken to Church and accused of being a witch. Uncle Victor asked that I confess that I am a witch or else when we get back to the house he will beat me up and use nails to pierce my body, but I told him that I was not a witch". Mary narrates.

She further stated that, "The next day Adiaha Akpan (who is their step sister) said she had a dream where I and Aniema my sister came to take her child away and that I wanted to kill her. She told Uncle Victor about the dream and he came and took us to the bush and started flogging us”.

Aniema added that, “When they went away I managed to untie myself and ran away but a broken bottle pierced my feet but I kept on running. The uncle caught up with me and continued with the flogging using big sticks and I was crying. They took me from one house to the other and some people joined them to flog me.”

The girls explained that they were tortured with different objects in order for them to confess. According to the girls, a nylon bag was being burnt while the flame was allowed to fall on their skin.

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The timely intervention of Okon Edet Bassey, their guardian who also happens to be a staff of the state local government service commission saved them.

NAIJ.com gathered that Bassey called home and threatened those torturing the children by saying they would not go scot free if anything happened to them.

"I wasn’t around so I didn’t know where they were tied up. But when the information got to me, I sent a message across to them and reported the incident to some Army men who were there. When they heard about my moves they rushed and untied the children.

As they brought the children back home, I quarreled with them and I was highly angry with them. "I promised them that they would not go scot free. The next day, Basic Right Council Initiative (BRCI), a not-for-profit organization based in Calabar with interest in safeguarding the rights of children was screening a movie, “The Fake Prophet” which focuses on witch craft branding and the role of fake clergymen in the propagation of the act.

“I took the children to the event. I narrated the story to them and they interviewed the children, they took their photographs, they even took the children to a nearby clinic for first-aid”, he narrated.

Bassey led the BRCI team to Divine Zion of God Church where the Pastor had accused the children of being witches. When they visted, the pastor was not around but the BRCI team reported the issue to the police.

The whole event took a funny twist when the pastor led police to arrest Bassey on Sunday morning. The former had learnt that some persons visited his church and took photographs of the place.

Barrister James Ibor, the legal counsel to BRCI reacted to the incident. “We have been finding it difficult getting Government to understand the effect of child abuse, especially witchcraft branding and stigmatization which is borne out of the superstitious belief in witches and wizards.

“Our investigation has revealed that it is difficult for Pentecostal Churches to exist in Nigeria without promoting the belief in witches and wizard. That is what actually promotes their trade. Unfortunately, that which gives them money is destroying our society. It’s destroying our children. The children we call the future for tomorrow”, Ibor stated.

Ibor said the police are not playing a good role as they do not focus on arresting the pastors who label the children as witches as in the case of Bassey that was arrested instead of the pastor.

Watch the NAIJ.com video below to see how disheartened this Nigerian woman is after cultists cut her 16-year-old son into pieces before burning him: