Sunday Trust learnt that the principal suspect, Rabilu Sani (20), lured the teenager, who came to the town from a village in Zamfara State to acquire Islamic Knowledge, to a farm and plucked his two eyes. The suspect asked the boy to help him gather firewood with an agreement to pay the boy N60 for the job.
Our correspondent gathered that the wailing of the boy attracted a passerby at about 1:00 pm minutes after his eyes were plucked. He was heard screaming in the bush, “My eyes! My eyes have been removed.” It was learnt that the passerby rushed to the scene and saw the boy in a pool of his blood. They ran after the suspect and later caught him. He was arrested along with his accomplice, one 63-year-old Adamu Musa Mai Gada.
In his confession, Rabilu, while speaking to Sunday Trust at the Kaduna State Police Headquarters, said it was destiny that made him to commit the act. He said he used a local blade to remove the boy’s eyes.
“It was ordained by God that such a thing would happen. But it was the first time I would engage in such a thing. I was pushed by one Musa who lives at Jaji. He told me that his boss in Abuja needed eyes to use for charms that would make him to be disappearing. He promised to give me one million naira if I get him the eyes.”
“At first, I couldn’t do it. So I went back to tell my partner, Mai Gada, that I got a boy but I couldn’t remove his eyes because I was scared. So he gave me a local concoction to drink. After drinking it, the fears in me disappeared. So I went back to the farm where I had kept the boy waiting. I used my local blade to remove his two eyes,’’ he said.
On his side, the 63-year-old Adamu Musa Mai Gada, denied taking part in the deal. His said, “Yes, I knew him in the town but I never discussed such a deal with him. I was in my house when he brought the eyes in a rubber and asked me to keep for him. I kept the eyes in a hole I dug inside my house.”
Speaking from his hospital bed, the boy recounted how the suspected ritualist lured him to a bush where he removed his eyes. “He said he would pay me N60 if I helped him with the firewood. When we got to the farm, he told me he would give me a prayer that would help me with my studies. From there he pulled me down and removed my eyes.”
The officials of the National Eye Centre told our correspondent that the father of the victim who lives in Zamfara State, has visited his son in the hospital. Sympathizers have continued to throng the hospital. They cursed the suspects of the act.
Confirming the incident, the police spokesperson, DSP Aminu Lawan, described it as pathetic, inhuman and devilish. “It was the police in Birnin Gwari that took the boy to the hospital for treatment when the news got to them. The prime suspect, Rabilu, was arrested with the help of some good Samaritans in the area who chased and caught him, as he tried to flee the crime venue,” he said
According Lawan, “the police are shocked and feel touched with the news. Whoever knows the importance of eyes to human beings and animals would definitely be touched with what happened to that innocent boy.”
DSP Lawan who described the case as an organised crime, assured that police would investigate the case before taking the suspects to court for prosecution.
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