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According to a statement issued by the Police Public Relations Officer in Bauchi, SP Ahmed Wakil, the suspect, Hamza Umar poured kerosene on a girl before setting her alight.
The statement added that Umar committed the crime when the victim entered his house in the Rafin Albasa area of the Bauchi metropolis, claiming that she was sent by her older sister to kill him.
“The suspect said that he attempted to make the girl leave his house but he said that she insisted that she must bury some charms in the corner of the house.
“The suspect became furious and poured kerosene on her and set her ablaze in his compound, claiming she was a witch,” Wakil said in the statement as quoted by the News Agency of Nigeria.
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A team of police officers were deployed to the scene to rescue the victim following a tipoff. She was rushed to the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH), Bauchi for swift medical attention.
“A discreet Investigation has been instituted to unravel the exact circumstances that led to the situation. The suspect will be charged to court for the established offence upon completion of the investigation,” SP Wakil said.
He went further to warn the public against extrajudicial abuses, emphasizing nobody has the right to subject a fellow human being to such barbaric treatment.
Meanwhile, in Ghana, especially in the northern regions of the country, there have been many instances of people, mostly elderly women having been set ablaze or beaten to death following unsubstantiated allegations that they were witches. Some of them are disbanded from their communities and they become personae non gratae for life. This situation has resulted in the establishment of witches’ camps in certain parts of the northern regions, which serve as homes for those suspected witches.