Ritualists invade Gombe

•Pluck out woman’s eye
•Kill 18-month old baby
Thursday, February 26, 2009

The residents of Federal Low cost and Tashan Dukku areas of Gombe, the Gombe State capital woke up last weekend to hear shocking and gory details of how the right eye of a dead woman was plucked out by suspected ritualists.

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Her corpse was deposited in one of the admission rooms of Miyyetti Clinic in Gombe metropolis but allegedly disappeared into thin air through the activities of yet to be identified people.

Officers and men of the Gombe State Police Command have swung into action to unravel the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the right eye of the dead woman.

Daily Sun gathered that but for the urgent and prompt intervention of officers and men of the detachment of the Mobile Police unit in Gombe who mobilized to the area to dispersed the rampaging angered crowd that gathered at the clinic premises, Miyyetti clinic would have been set ablaze as parts of it was already torched by the time the Police showed up.

The Command’s Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Abdullahi Kamba gave the name of the dead woman as Zainab Mohammed who was admitted at the hospital and operated upon on Tuesday the 17th of February 2009 after she had complained of stomach ache. She was delivered of a baby sometimes in January.

Kamba also said that the 40 year-old woman was confirmed dead few hours after the successful operation on the said day while the corpse was kept in a room in the hospital since there was no mortuary in the hospital as they waited for the owners of the corpse to come and take it for burial.

Trouble however started when the owners of the corpse came to claim it and upon closer examinations discovered that the body had been tempered with as the right eye had been allegedly removed by yet to be identified people suspected to be ritualists just as the PPRO disclosed that all the five staff on duty on the fateful day including a gateman and Dr. Bappah Aliyu who was also on duty have been immediately arrested while investigations has since commenced.

When contacted a confused husband of late Zainab, one Babani Mallami, a staff of the Gombe State Ministry of Information, expressed worry at why such a thing was happening to him explaining that one month after she gave birth, she had been complaining of stomach ache which also resulted in the gradual swelling of her stomach adding that it was as a result this that she was taken to the hospital where she was subsequently operated upon and then died.

While confirming the incident further, the first son of the woman who is said to be around 23 years old, Ibrahim Kabir said they spent three days with the mother in the hospital and that when the doctor suggested that she should be operated upon which would cost N15, 000.00, he was also asked to provide one sachet bag of blood.

According to him, after signing for the operation, he went to look for the money but came back to discover that she died some hours after the operation saying that they were not briefed about what was removed from her stomach and that even when he was shown the corpse, he did not see any wound in his mother’s body apart from the wound on her stomach where she was operated upon thus expressing surprise when the next morning he discovered that one right eye was missing.

He added that as Muslims, his uncles did not allow for further investigations on the corpse as it was buried the following day Wednesday, according to Islamic injunctions.

As at the time of filing this report, unconfirmed report has it that members of the Gombe State chapter of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) had already taken steps and got their colleague, Dr. Bappah released from Police custody pending the outcome of the investigations and other legal actions likely to be taken by the Police.

But as if to confirm the activities of ritualists in the State, in another part of the State, within the metropolis, called Pantami, an attempt was made to steal a one and a half years old Deborah Gayauna Phinehas in front of her parents’ house. And the toddler later died in the hospital due to severe injuries inflicted on her during the attempt to steal her.

Daily Sun reliably gathered that the suspected ritualist who rode on a motorcycle that fateful Tuesday afternoon (3rd-February, 2009) tried to snatch little Gayauna on his motorcycle but when other children from a distance saw what was happening and shouted ‘barawo’ (thief), he threw her down from the bike and rode on her which later led to her death at the Primary Health Care Centre, Pantami.

Narrating their predicaments with uncontrollable tears, both parents of late little Gayauna who spent three unfruitful years before God blessed them with the only daughter cursed whoever was the man who was instrumental to the death of their only source of joy praying that very soon God will expose such evil people within the society so that the innocent will be allowed to live their lives according to the will of God.

As it is now residents of Gombe now live in fear, waiting and praying that soon the Police and other security agents in the State would swing into action to nip the activities of these ritualists in the bud.

http://odili.net/news/source/2009/feb/26/508.html