Jungle Justice: How Cross River Woman Accused of Witchcraft was Burnt Alive

By Stanley Ekpenyong, South south Bureau Chief

The primitive belief in witchcraft and jungle justice against alleged witches persist in Cross River as another woman accused of causing the death of two young men through witchery has been burnt alive.

The woman, Mrs Martina Itagbor, was accused by the youths of Old Netim, Akamkpa Local Government Area of the State, of engineering, through witchcraft, the fatal car crash which claimed the lives of two young men in the area.

She was subsequently burnt alive by the youths.

Sources claim that the police could not do anything to rescue the helpless woman as she was being burnt.

Recall that one Mrs Iquo Edet Eyo along side four others( two males aged 60 + and two females aged 60+) were last year accused of witchcraft, murdered and buried in a shallow grave by the  youths of Ndong Nwong in Odukpani local government area of the State.

Similarly, last year, Cross River state High Court sitting in Akamkpa sentence a man, Ayanime Udo, to death for killing his twin daughters whom he accused of witchcraft.

On January 10, 2017, Udo was said to have poisoned his 11-year old twin daughters — Mfoniso and Emediong — by giving them a malt drink mixed with acid from his motorcycle over allegation that they were witches.

One of the girls was said to have died immediately, while the second daughter crawled to the road where she was assisted by someone to get to the hospital — she was confirmed dead the next day.