Three-year-old boy’s eyes removed, Emir undertakes to sponsor treatment

Alhaji Shehu Idris, the Emir of Zazzau, has promised to sponsor the treatment of a three-year-old boy, Sadiq Usman, whose eyes were plucked by unknown persons in Zaria, Kaduna State.
Usman was found on a waste-dump site behind Baby-Friendly Hospital, Jushi in Zaria, with two of his eyes removed by yet-to-be identified people suspected to be ritualists.
The waste-dump is few metres away from the boy’s father’s residence.
Alhaji Abubakar Ladan, the Protocol Officer to the Emir, told newsmen in Zaria that the Emir was “highly disturbed” when the story got to him.
Ladan said: “This is a very sad and sympathetic case and we pray God to expose those behind the act.”
The boy’s father, Malam Mohammed Usman, said he left home while the little boy was playing with his peers and that the next thing he heard were shouts of people asking him to come back home because his child was found with his two eyes removed.
He said: “The incident was reported at Zaria-city Police Divisional Headquarters and the boy was subsequently rushed to St. Luke’s Hospital, Wusasa for medical attention.”
When contacted, the Medical Director, St. Luke’s Hospital, Dr. S. Gilbert, said at about 4.30pm on January 25, his attention was drawn to the incident by a doctor on call duty.
Gilbert said the doctor told him that a little boy was brought to the hospital with his eyes removed, adding that the victim was responding to treatment.
Confirming the incident, the Kaduna State Police Public Relations Officer, Zubairu Abubakar, said investigation into the matter had already begun.
Abubakar said the boy had been referred to the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital for further medical attention.
Abubakar appealed to the immediate community and the public to assist the police with vital information that would help them to track down the perpetrators of the crime.
NAN.