A coffin maker, identified simply as Papa Ogada, dumped his 14-year-old son into an abandoned water well, accusing him of witchcraft and being behind the ills that had befallen him over the years.
Based on what was gathered, the boy had, for some years now, lived with his mother who separated from the husband but after a while reunited with him.
It was further learnt that few years after the boy came back to live with his father, owing to the turn of events in the man’s fortunes, he started accusing him (the son) of being a wizard and also responsible for his misfortunes.
As stated by a source, on the fateful day, Papa Ogada, who is from Oberete village in Obingwa council area of Abia State, contacted one of his friends, who helped him to tie up his son, who was in his school uniform and drove off at about 9p.m. to the neighbouring Abiaka village where they dumped him inside the abandoned water well in the area.
The source stated that before this time, the coffin maker had been complaining to his friends that his son was a witch and had caused him serial misfortunes.
“The truth is that the man has been separated from the boy’s mother. Since the boy came back from his mother’s place, the man has been accusing him of being a witch. He once told us that he consulted many spiritualists, who told him that his son was a witch and was behind the problems he has had in his business. So, we are not surprised that he went this far to dump the boy in a well,” the source stated.
However, the boy was luckly as some peolpe came to his reescue. As stated by a native of Abiaka village, who claimed to have taken part in rescuing the boy, some people heard the voice of the boy from inside the well and rushed there and subsequently rescued him.
In his words: “Some of us had already retired for the day when we started hearing shouts from the location of the abandoned well, but we thought people were fighting…”
"As the shout increased, we summoned courage and got to the area and discovered that it was coming from the abandoned well.
"We got a rope and bucket and threw them inside which the boy managed to cling to and was pulled out. He was already weak with injuries. We thank God the water well had been out of use; he would not have survived it.”
As at the time of filing this report, the boy was said to be receiving medical attention at an undisclosed hospital while his father was said to be on the run.
