How we were forced to confess to witchcraft – Victims

DAILY TRUST

Blessing Sunday, a Junior Secondary School 3 (JSS3) student, recounted the harrowing night she and her father were accused of witchcraft in their Ipinu-Oju central community in Oju Local Government Area of Benue State.

At about 2am, a man came to our house and called my father, saying some elders wanted to see him and that he should bring me along. When we got to the elder’s house, we found out that a man, whose wife had brought a house girl, had accused several people, including my father and I, of witchcraft,” Blessing said.

The accusation took a horrifying turn when she was asked directly if she was a witch. “I told them I wasn’t, but they didn’t believe me. They made a fire and forced two of us (children) to sit close to it. They said the fire would make us confess if we were witches,” she explained.
According to Blessing, four adults were also accused but were not subjected to the same ordeal. “Only we, the children, were forced to sit by the fire. The heat was unbearable, and it was burning me. I eventually told them I was a witch just so they would let me go,” she recounted, her voice filled with pain.

The fire inflicted burns on Blessing’s body, particularly around her anus, leaving her traumatised and scarred.

Buttressing the story, her father, Iji Sunday, who said the sad incident occurred in April 2024, also narrated how he and his 13-year-old daughter, Blessing, became victims of witchcraft accusation that spiralled into violence and trauma.

He recounted that a family member, Abene Ogbu, accused him and his daughter of practicing witchcraft.

“Ogbu gathered people from the community around 2am. They accused my daughter of being a witch and subjected her to horrifying abuse,” he revealed.

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