Posted by KENNY ASHAKA, Kaduna on
A 70-year-old grandfather in Kaduna calmly narrated last week how he took his 10-year-old grandson to a bush and killed him for witchcraft. The lad, he said, was responsible for the triple deaths of his own children aged 15, 24 and 20.
A 70-year-old grandfather in Kaduna calmly narrated last week how he took his 10-year-old grandson to a bush and killed him for witchcraft. The lad, he said, was responsible for the triple deaths of his own children aged 15, 24 and 20.
The grandfather, Mallam Barde, a farmer of Arak 1 Wase District in Sanga Local Council alleged that his grandson, Barnabas Simon, possessed witchcraft which he used to kill his three children in rapid succession. To mete out his own punishment, Mallam Barde led his grandson to a bush some few kilometers away from their native Kogom village and 'slaughtered" him.
The suspect told Sunday Sun in an interview at the Police Headquarters in Kaduna that he killed the boy as a means of ending the recurring circle of deaths in his family after the deceased confessed to being responsible for the death of his three children.
He is now cooling his heel in a police cell in the Kaduna metropolis. Mallam Barde told Sunday Sun that killing the boy was the only option left as the deceased had become irredeemable from the world of secret society.
The tragedy occurred after the grandson was returned from a church, which specializes in the delivery of witches and wizards as a boy who cannot be delivered.
'The pastor told us he cannot have such a boy in his flock because those the man of God had delivered were being re-initiated by my grandson. We took him there to be delivered so that he can remove himself from their wicked society.
'Since he has become too strong for the man of God, who am I to deliver him? We have other children, not too many. I felt allowing him to live would make me fatherless.
'This boy operates without mercy. What he does is, if my children come home and buys any item for him, he will send that item to their world. Then the person who bought the item for him will fall sick and die.
'When he did it the first and second time, we never suspected him until the third one died. We then consulted and were told he was responsible for the deaths. I couldn't believe it until he confessed and even told us how he does it," the grandfather said.
Commissioner of Police in Kaduna State, Ernest Ibhaze told Sunday Sun that during the course of investigation, Mallam Barde confessed to the killing of the deceased for allegedly belonging to a secret society.
He said the suspect alleged that 'the deceased became the cause of multiple deaths of his children." Ibhaze said investigation into the case had been concluded and that the suspect will soon be charged to court for culpable homicide.