“A pastor told my father that I am the cause of his blindness” – Girl narrates how her father beat her with a machete

An 8-year-old girl identified as Mary has been rescued in Akwa Ibom state after it was alleged that her father beat her up with sticks, brooms, and machetes.

It was disclosed that a pastor told her father that she was the cause of his blindness. Mary was rescued by Pastor Okon John, a volunteer with the Child’s Rehabilitation Network (CRARN).

While narrating her ordeal, she said;

“My father used to beat me with sticks and machetes with the help of my elder brother, faith (aka ay); because our bishop said I was the cause of his blindness. He pressed my neck on the ground asking me to confess or he’d kill me,”

“I heard stories of children taken to the forest and they’ll never return back because they’re ‘witches’ and ‘wizards’; and stories of ruffians who came and picked children, even elderly people in the night and killed them, and I thought of where my two brothers were, with no answers coming up. I also thought and pray of how i can escape.”

According to CRARN, the little girl was already sobbing out her eyes waiting patiently for the day some hoodlums would take her to the forest and never return her back to her father, or the night a witch would slaughter her amidst sleep.