NIGERIA – Six self-confessed ‘witches’ have been arraigned before a court in Yola, Adamawa state capital over the failing health of a 3-year-old girl.

The suspects; a  60-year-old woman, one other woman still at large identified simply as Dudu and five minors allegedly used demonic powers to afflict a three-year-old girl with an illness.

The 60-year-old identified as Halima Jonta and the minors were rounded up and brought to the Criminal Area Court 1, Yola, by a community leader and Sarkin Mayu Adamawa, Kabiru Garba after learning of the state of health of the three-year-old.

In court, Halima who revealed that she and the five minors aged between four and six years, as well as a woman on the run, had bewitched the three-year-old girl, also disclosed that she and two other women had killed seven people in the seven years she had been in witchcraft practice.

The kids who also confessed in court, said Halima Jonta and the other woman now at large asked them to tie the three-year-old and put a stone in her stomach. They revealed that the soul of a dead person was planted in the 3-year-old girl.

Asides revealing that they have untied her and removed the stone in her, the kids said the death image in her remained because removing it was beyond their power and only Dudu who is on the run can remove it because she planted it.

The Criminal Area Court 1 judge, Hon Umar Gangs who ruled on the case expressed anger that little children still so far from adulthood were introduced into witchcraft. He ordered that Dudu should be found by all means and brought before the court. He gave the accused a 24-hour ultimatum to remove all that they had inflicted the three-old-girl with and restore her to perfect health.