Shocking! Father sentenced to death by hanging for gruesome murder of twin daughters he accused of being witches
Nigerian children accused of being witches are frequently subjected to exorcisms and even death. (Credit: Mags Gavan/Red Rebel Films)
By MJ Pierce // Crime // EEW Magazine Online
The case of a father killing his twin daughters after accusing them of being witches has shocked the global faith community.
A High Court in Akamkpa, Cross River State, Nigeria, has sentenced Ayanime Udo to death by hanging for the brutal murder of the 11-year-old siblings in 2017.
The judge in the case, Justice Agnes Onyebueke, said, “Udo’s act is satanic, demonic, and beyond human comprehension,” reports Nigerian Tribune.
Onyebueke added that the depraved dad “willfully and gruesomely” executed his twins, Mfoniso Anyanime and Emediong Anyanime, after dubbing them evil instruments of Satan.
Unidentified Nigerian children are burned and tortured after being accused of witchcraft (Credit: BBC)
When cross-examined, the defendant, Udo, who is in his 50s, could not offer an acceptable defense or any proof of his allegation of witchcraft against the victims.
To end the girls’ lives, he gave them a malt drink mixed with acid from his motorcycle.
One child died instantly on January 10, 2017, while the second crawled to the road where she was helped by a kind stranger that picked her up and rushed her to a local hospital. Unfortunately, she died the following day.
These days, we do not hear often hear of such cases that are reminiscent of the Salem Witch Trials, one of the greatest examples of mass hysteria in American history. Legal proceedings, based on ridiculous, unfounded accusations of witchcraft, led to 150 people being accused of using “the Devil’s magic” and the death of 25 innocent victims, reports Smithsonian Magazine.
Though Salem Witch Trials happened June 1692–May 1693, the Udo case shows that the happenings of our distant past and more than ancient history. These things are still happening today.
James Ibor, child rights activist for the Basic Rights Counsel Initiative (BCRI), who led the prosecution against Udo, celebrated the outcome.
“This judgment is a great victory to the victims, Mfoniso Anyanime, Emediong Anyanime in particular, and the Government of Cross River State,” said Ibor.
A 2009 CBS report said the idea of witchcraft took on new life thanks to the rapid growth in evangelical Christianity. At that time of reporting, around 15,000 children had been accused of witchcraft in two of Nigeria's 36 states over the past decade and around 1,000 had been murdered, sometimes being given as acid as an exorcism or even set on fire.
