By Mary Bassey
A High Court of Cross River State sitting in Odukpani and presided over by Justice Victor Offiong on Tuesday remanded one Bassey Nyong Bassey at the Calabar Medium Security Custodial Center over the murder of five people in Ndon Nwong community on October 14, last year.
Bassey, 27, and two others have been in police custody for weeks for the murder of Mrs. Iquo Edet Eyo and four others. The five were tied, tortured, killed, and buried in the forest.
The incident was triggered by a motorcycle accident that took place on the evening of October 13, 2022, which led to two children being tortured and forced to identify the witches, with the youths rallying 9 victims up. After tormenting them, four were set free.
A coalition of rights groups and individuals based in Nigeria and the United Kingdom who had dubbed the unfortunate incident as “Another Calabar 5” had in a statement explained that Mrs. Eyo “after telling the youth that she was not a witch, she was beaten mercilessly with machetes, sticks, and cudgels. She was also sexually assaulted, cut along her stomach, and hand, and with multiple blows to her head.”
And, on Tuesday, Mr. Bassey was arraigned with nine charges preferred against him in charge number HC/20c/2023. His co-defendants, Bassey Okon Effiong, 28, and Etim Ekpenyong Ekpo, 18 were not in Court as their files are yet to be transmitted.
The Court
After the case was called, Mr. Bassey took to the dock. The Prosecution Counsel, Adama Cletus Esq, informed the Court that the Police had yet to transmit the files of the other defendants to the Ministry of Justice.
He sought the leave of Court to amend the charges earlier preferred, which was granted.
The Counsel to Mr. Effiong and Mr. Ekpo who are listed as first and second defendants respectively, informed the Court that they have not been served with the requisite materials to prepare for their defense.
Justice Offiong subsequently remanded Mr. Bassey and adjourned the matter until November 21, 2023, for plea and trial.
Lawyer React
James Ibor Esq, a rights activist and Principal Counsel of Basic Rights Counsel Initiative who is monitoring the trial, told CrossRiverWatch that he is happy the defendants, nominal complainants, the families, and the entire public are advocating justice.
“The process has started, and we can only hope that justice be served. Justice for the five that were gruesomely murdered just because of superstition,” Ibor said, lamenting that, “superstition kills us more than diseases.”
Ibor who said he hopes for justice to serve as deterrence, disclosed that “the police are still on the trail of the culprits, and I have confidence that they will be brought to justice.”
Family Cries For Justice
The brother of Mrs. Eyo, Mr. Okon Eyo Asuquo, told CrossRiverWatch that he hopes others now at large are arrested and face justice. “The three defendants and many more are the ones who attacked my sister, complaining that some of them are roaming about in the village freely. Mr. Asuquo urges the government to reprimand them and bring them to justice.”
The son of the late Mrs. Eyo, Asuquo Inyang said he is not satisfied with the pace the Court is going.
“I am not satisfied with the Court process because Uko did not give my mother a chance. Had he given, I would have been happy, and I would have seen my mother again, but they did not. So, I appeal also that the government should not give Uko and his gangs a chance, the state in which the murdered my mother, Uko, and his gangs should also face the same judgment.”
Recounting how he learned of his mother’s passing, Asuquo averred that; “one faithful day when I was in Akwa Ibom, I received a phone call from my brother and sister saying Uko and his gangs have killed my mother all in the name of witchcraft. So right now, as I am standing, I need justice for my mother and the person who killed my mother must follow. Crying let the government bring justice for my mother.”
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