I Was Under A Spell - Suspect Who Mutilated A Six-Year-Old Girl's Genitals For Ritual Confesses

Adamu Ra’uf

Adamu Ra’uf, a 20-year-old man who is one of the suspects who allegedly took part in the cutting of the private parts of a six-year old girl for suspected ritual purposes in Bauchi State has confessed.

He said that he was charmed by his friend who is now at large to take part in the dastardly act.

The incident was said to have occurred at about 7.20 pm on December 30, 2020.

The suspect, Adamu Ra’uf (20), an indigene of Gandu Jama’are Local Government Area, who was arrested by the state’s police command, confessed upon interrogation that he conspired with one Abdulkadir Haladu of Chikamidari in the area to perpetrate the crime.

Narrating his role in the incident to newsmen at the headquarters of the Bauchi State Police Command yesterday, Rauf said: ”My friend Haladu and I took the victim to an uncompleted building where her private parts were mutilated on the instruction of a native doctor who said he would use it to make money for us.

”My friend used charm to lure the girl to the uncompleted building. Then he brought out a knife and asked me to hold her skirt.

I was not aware that he had cut off her private part. What I know is that he later came into a house where we hid and showed me the part he had cut off.

”I told him to count me out of what had happened, but he warned that he would kill me if I told anybody about it.”

Explaining how he was arrested, the suspect said ”someone came to tell me that he heard that the police wanted to see me at the station. I was standing by the road side, so I climbed an okada (commercial motorcycle) to honour their invitation.”

Asked whether he was rewarded by Haladu after carrying out the act, he said he (Haladu) did not promise him anything.

“The only thing he did was to charm me. As a result, I saw myself obeying all his instructions. And he has been dragging me to so many places with the charm. I really regret my action,” he said.

The sister to the victim’s father, Maryam Mohammed, who spoke to newsmen in Jama’re, said the victim was put in her care because her brother and the girl’s mother had separated.

Maryam said she was not at home when the incident occurred, adding that the victim went to the house of another brother of hers to play.

She said it was on her way that the victim met the suspects who sent her on an errand, adding that while she was returning, they lured her into the uncompleted building.

”From there, we didn’t know what happened. We only saw her coming back with bloodstains and crying. We don’t know how she managed to come back home.”

Maryam recalled that it was one of their neighbours, a woman, who alerted them.

She said: ”A neighbour called us that we should come and see our daughter; that something had wounded her.

“Some people said she was raped. But when she was taken to the hospital, they referred her to Azare medical centre.

“While we were crying, somebody who went to the hospital told us that it was not rape; that her entire private part was mutilated.”

Maryam, who noted that such a thing had never happened in the entire Jama’are area, added that they were planning to enroll the victim into school this year before the ugly incident occurred.

“We have never witnessed or heard of this kind heinous act in this community. She has a sibling who is also under my care. She is the first child of her mother,” Maryam said.

She pleaded with the authorities to ensure that justice was done in the matter to serve as a deterrent to others.

She also expressed gratitude to the government for quick intervention in the matter.

It will be recalled that the spokesman of the Bauchi State Police Command, Ahmed Wakil, in a statement made available to journalists in Bauchi, said that immediately the police received the complaint from the victim’s aunt, they swung into action and arrested one of the suspects while his accomplice was still at large.

He recalled that when the police rushed the victim to the hospital, a medical doctor confirmed that her private part had been removed.

He said the Commissioner of Police in the state, Lawan Jimeta, has directed that the case be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) for discreet investigation.