Angry youths from Edeoha, Upata Ekpeye in Ahoada East Local Government Area of Rivers State had mobbed a witch doctor popularly known as Indian and destroyed his shrine.
Community sources said the Delta State-born witch doctor who resides in the Edeoha Upata Ekpeye community, was allegedly caught burying a three-month-old child alive by a resident of the community in the wee hours of Monday.
The source said the witness confronted the witch doctor at the time the new born baby was being buried alive and later went to the village where he alerted the people on what he saw.
The source said soon afterwards, hundreds of youths from the community proceeded to the residence of the suspect where he was apprehended and beaten thoroughly beaten up.
The source stated that the suspects mysteriously slipped out of the hands of his captors as they attempted to drag him to the Ahoada police station.
Angered by the disappearance of the suspect the angry youths invaded his shrine where over 100 pictures of men and women nailed and chained in different sizes of chairs and side tables were discovered.
The source disclosed that padlocks of different sizes were used to chain the pictures littered in the shrine.
“When the angry youths got to the shrine, they first dug up the body of the dead child buried by the witch doctor and proceeded inside the shrine where the pictures of men and women were nailed and chained in chairs and small tables.
“The angry youths tried all they could to burn down his building in order to set the victims in chains free but the building couldn’t catch fire so they used hammer to pull down the building down. Many items and unimaginable things were found there, and most of those whose pictures were found there were all dead,” the source said.
The source said the picture of a serving commissioner in the state was among the many pictures discovered in the shrine.
A resident of the area, Bernard Odio, who was at the scene of the incident, said he saw many pictures of men and women nailed and chained to chairs and tables.
He said many of the residents whose pictures were found in the shrine were dead while those alive are down with various illnesses.
He said the whereabouts of the witch doctor was still unknown.
When contacted, Rivers State Police Command Public Relation Officer, SP Nnamdi Omoni, confirmed the incident.
