Acid Bath Dad walks free, as daughter’s condition worsens – Comfort urgently needs medical attention, doctor says

Comfort is a JSS II student of Government Secondary School, Akwanga, and is living with her father, Sunday James, 61, and her stepmother, Justina Abimiku, 52. She lost her mom at a tender age and has grown up to know no parental love because James and his wife would not give such to her.Comfort became […]

Comfort is a JSS II student of Government Secondary School, Akwanga, and is living with her father, Sunday James, 61, and her stepmother, Justina Abimiku, 52. She lost her mom at a tender age and has grown up to know no parental love because James and his wife would not give such to her.
Comfort became used to being maltreated, more so that neighbours learned to mind their business. Nobody around is informed enough to report her maltreatment to the Welfare Office. She is also used to being accused for flimsy offences. She has taken all the blame for all the wrongdoings of other family members. But what she never expected is to be bathed in acid by her own father. Taking her by surprise when he invited her on an unnamed journey which ended up in an uncompleted building, where he poured a tin-full of corrosive acid on her.
He blackmailed her into swallowing the corrosive substance, saying if she does that without throwing it out, she is not the devil being thought of. But if she does throw it out, then she was confirming the fears that she is a witch which has been smothering family members, including her late mother. So, she tried drinking it, to prove her innocence. It hurt, biting her tongue. She threw it out immediately. She was guilty of the deaths in the family, including of her very mother as her father declared. So her father overpowered her and ran the acid on her face, then he left.
James was acting the script of a pastor whose name Weekly Trust could not obtain because he and the entire family is concealing his identity. The priest pointed at Comfort and accused her of the deaths in the family, alleging how she is in a cult which demands blood from her all times and called her a witch. He did not allow her to deny, as he took his fee and left without casting out the demon.
Comfort was first accused in 2008 by her stepmother of being a witch. She accused her of being responsible for the ill-health of family members. Headache, stomachache, fevers; everything was blamed on her. Her father, a security guard at the Catholic Church in Alushi area of Akwanga, believed his wife’s story of how Comfort is the virus causing all illness around the family. The stepmom had this to say: “I have eight children with one of them dead. One day, about three years ago, after my husband brought Comfort to stay with us from the South-West and all my children and myself fell inexplicably sick.”
Matters got worse for Comfort, as after being pushed her next door to her grandparents, her grandfather, Auta Anaku fell ill at this time and he passed on. Confession upon confession sprang up about how Comfort had told family members she is a witch. So, when James’ younger sister, Barmami fell ill in 2008, and was rushed to Abuja, she decided to explore other means to cure her illness. She ran to the pastor who followed her down to Akwanga to make the accusations. What followed was the acid bath.
Better Leven, an NGO based in Akwanga, is trying to rehabilitate Comfort who had been in its custody since then. Timothy Tashi, programme officer of the NGO said on several occasions he contacted James and brought up the condition of Comfort, but that the father has always refused show any remorse even as the girl’s condition is not improving. Also, the NGO is having problems attracting government’s attention to her, just as the police have continued to look the other way. James is walking the streets scot-free after he made statements to the police.
Meanwhile, a doctor, who chose to remain anonymous, stressed the urgent need for surgery to be done on Comfort’s face, as her condition may worsen, making correction difficult or even impossible.
Victor Labesa, Nasarawa State coordinator of the Legal Aid Council, described the deed of James as barbaric and callous. He said with the Child’s Right Act domesticated in the state since 2005, James committed a crime against humanity and must be brought to book. But the police cannot act, as Comfort remains in pain, victim to the superstitious beliefs of those supposed to love and care for her.