"A certain medicine man in their village said the children were responsible for his sickness. They have also been branded as wizards by their villagers. They have been brutally abused by the whole community, and been called all kinds of names," Saleh said.
Samuel Sunday, a father of three, has poisoned his sons with 'sniper' in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.
Two of the sons — Miracle (aged 12) and God’s time (aged 10) — died, while the third son, Success (aged 14) is recuperating at a private hospital in Yenagoa.
Parading the father before newsmen, Aminu Saleh, Commissioner of Police in Bayelsa, said Sunday's brother was his accomplice, and that the children had been branded as wizards, which led to the incident.
"A certain medicine man in their village said the children were responsible for his sickness. They have also been branded as wizards by their villagers. They have been brutally abused by the whole community, and been called all kinds of names," Saleh said.
He urged parents, religious leaders and community leaders to be on the lookout for their children, and not subject them to unnecessary hardship.
Narrating his side of the story, Sunday said he was arrested on Wednesday morning after he went to the village to pick his children for a church programme. He said he gave his brother, who is now at large, N1,000 for transportation to take them back to the village.
Dr Moses Emeka, a physician at Hillem Medical Centre, attending to the surviving child, said Success was brought to the hospital unconscious by an official of the Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). He said the boy would soon recover as he is responding to treatment.
Narrating what happened, Success said it was their father and uncle that gave them the poison.
"Our father and his brother tied three of us and gave us sniper to drink. I was told that my brothers are dead and that I am the only one that survived," he said in tears.