16-Year-Old Girl Locked In A Cage For Two & Half Years By Her Parents Over Alleged Witchcraft Illness
Tongues have begun to wag in Bayelsa following the discovery of a 16-year-old girl, Blessing Olokumo who had been locked up in a cage for the past 30 months by her parents over an alleged witchcraft induced illness.
Saturday Sun gathered that the cage that has housed the victim for two and half years is just by the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital in Okolobiri community, Yenagoa Local Government Area of the state. She was rescued from the cage few days ago by the Mary Slessor Twins Foundation.
The group, led by its acting president, Mr Robert Ebitei Tonye, disclosed that preliminary
investigations revealed that Blessing was diagnosed with an illness nine years ago which triggered convulsion.
Findings by Saturday Sun revealed that when Blessing was taken to the hospital for medical attention nine years ago, the parents were asked to pay N15, 000 for her treatment. It was further learnt that the father, who said he could not afford such medical bill, requested her to be discharged and signed a form that he was taking her from the hospital against medical advice.
He was said to have later taken her to different traditional homes for her illness to be cured and when no solution was forthcoming, especially when she defecates and vomits in the house, he decided to construct a cage where she was kept.
Concerned neighbours, who have watched in horror the maltreatment Blessing was subjected to, alerted the group known for its campaign against maltreatment of twins in the state.
The first day the group went to the house to rescue her, Tonye said some strange occurrences and the blunt refusal of the father to hand her over, prevented the group from rescuing her. But on its second mission, they succeeded and immediately took her to the Okolobiri hospital.
While lamenting the condition of the teenager, Tonye said: “She was kept like a rabbit. She was given food when it was available and was allowed to sleep in her vomit, feces and urine. She lost weight and could have died”.
At the Okolobiri hospital where she is kept, many who visited her described her parents’ action as wicked and callous.
Source: Sun News
