An 8-year-old girl identified as Mary was rescued in Akwa Ibom from her father who assaulted her with sticks and machetes after a pastor told her father that she is the cause of his Blindness.
Mary was rescued by Pastor Okon John, a volunteer with the Child’s Rehabilitation Network (CRARN) in Eket.
While narrating what happened, Mary said;
“My father used to beat me with sticks and machetes with the help of my elder brother, Faith (aka AY); because our Bishop said I was the cause of his blindness. He pressed my neck on the ground asking me to confess or he’d kill me,”
“I heard stories of children taken to the forest and they’ll never return back because they’re ‘witches’ and ‘wizards’; and stories of ruffians who came and picked children, even elderly people in the night and killed them, and I thought of where my two brothers were, with no answers coming up. I also thought and pray of how I can escape.”
According to CRARN, Mary was already sobbing her eyes out and waiting for the day some hoodlums would come and take her to the forest where she will never return, or the night some witch killers will come and slaughter her.
Mary’s prayers received an answer as a long-standing CRARN volunteer, Pastor Okon John learned of her ordeals.
Pastor John hired a tricycle who drove him and Mary about 55 KM to the CRARN Children Centre, Ikot Afaha, Eket, Akwa Ibom State where she joined her two brothers, Elijah and Robinson and other children.
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