Nigerien plucks 10-yr-old boy’s eyes for rituals

A 20-year-old man from Niger Republic, who is also a son of an Imam residing in a village in Birnin-Gwari area of Kaduna State, was arrested recently along four others for allegedly plucking the two eyes of a 10-year-old Almajiri (street urchin) for rituals.

The culprit (name witheld) in an interview with Daily Sun at the Police headquarters in Kaduna said, one Mallam asked him to get the two eyes, which he promised to use in preparing charms that would make him invincible.

The suspect said he lured the boy to follow him to a nearby farm:
“When I took the boy to the bush, I tied him down and came back and told the chief priest. He gave me a concoction which I drank and another charm to tie on my waist.

“I went back to the boy in the bush, pinned him down to the floor after placing a charm given to me by the chief priest around his neck. I then plucked his two eyes with a sharp knife and took it to the chief priest.
“I was caught by the villagers when I went back to collect the hoe and knife I left at the scene.”
The culprit said he regretted committing the act because according to him he was not in his senses when the crime was committed:

“I am a farmer and I do give people spiritual help before I was introduced into thisact.
“I worked with two male and female spirits which I named ‘Mallam’ an‘Bilki’.
“My father is from Niger Republic and an Imam in Birnin Gwari LGA has no knowledge of my involvement in these activities.

“He has once shown his disapproval of my movement with these people.”
He blamed the chief priest for continuously pestering him to be involved:
“I have never committed this act before. It is this chief priest, and one Soho Bello (not real name) who promised to pay me one million naira if I could bring the fresh human eyes to prepare charm for invisibility.
“Soho Bello said he will be taking it to a big man in Abuja.”

The 42-year-old Bello who was among those arrested, however denied his involvement in the act:
“I was at my farm in Jaji near Kaduna when the Nigerien and one other person accosted me that they will help me with weapon resistant and invincibility charm. “I did not set my eyes on them since January 2010 until last Sunday morning when I was arrested and taken to Birnin Gwari.”

The 63-year-old chief priest, who was caught by the police with the fresh eyes in his house, initially said that he had no choice than to admit all allegations against him, only for him to make a u-turn to say the Nigerien brought the fresh human eyes to him for safekeeping when the people who saw him as he went to recover his hoe were chasing him.

“I have no regret in this whole issue because I know I am innocent,” the chief priest insisted.
When our reporter contacted the victim (name witheld) at the National Eye Center, Kaduna, where he is receiving treatment, he said he is one of the over 70 almajirai (street urchins) of about his age who came from Bungudu in Zamfara State, to Kaduna. He said the suspect “asked one of his two wives to give me food when I came to his house begging.

“He took me to the bush to clear his farmland at the cost of N60.00)
“He asked me to lie with my back resting on my hands and close my eyes so that he can administer medicine for ‘knowledge’ on me. “He placed short rope-like charm around my neck which immediately sedated me.
“I could feel pains when he was plucking my eyes with a sharp object but I could not struggle. He dug a hole and buried me alive.

“I managed to push some sands on my face after he had left as I began to recover from the ‘sedative’ and shouted faintly upon hearing sounds of passersby who came immediately and rescued me.”