Ritualists pluck seven-year-old’s eyes

Some suspected ritualists on Friday in Babujaye village of Toro Local Government Area of Bauchi State plucked the two eyes of a seven year-old cattle rearer, Haruna Usman.
Narrating how his son lost his eyes, father of the boy, Malam Usman Muyalbi, told the News Agency of Nigeria that he and his son had gone out to rear cattle on that fateful day when he left Haruna and went to a nearby town.
Muyalbi said: “As we were rearing the cows, some of them veered into somebody’s farm by accident and destroyed crops.
“I then decided to go and inform the owner of the farm, so that we can assess the damage for me to settle him.
“I left Haruna to keep watch over the cows but when I returned at about 1pm, my son was nowhere to be found.
“I later heard him crying inside a nearby valley and upon getting there, discovered that his two eyes had been removed.”
Mayalbi, whose son had been admitted at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi, therefore appealed to the government and wealthy individuals to help his son regain his sight.
Zainab Abdulkadir, a medical staff and also Manager of the Pediatric Surgical Ward, ATBUTH, where the boy was admitted, told NAN that he would hardly recover his sight.
Abdulkadir said: “The assailants had gone with the two eyes.
“They have also destroyed the nerves while trying to pluck the eyes by force.
“The only thing that can be done is to provide the boy with ‘cosmetic’ eyes but he will never see again.”
The Bauchi State Police Command’s Public Relations Officer, DSP Haruna Mohammed, confirmed the incident on Tuesday, adding that efforts had been intensified to apprehend the culprits.