The miracle center, where alleged wizards and witches are stripped naked.

 

Videos of gross abuse of human rights in a so-called miracle centre in Mokwa, Niger State have been trending on social media in the past two months. They include those of men and women stripped naked after they were accused of witchcraft. Bizarre scenes in the videos include women being forced to confess their alleged evil deeds at gunpoint and men being forced to urinate on one another.

The opening scene in one of the videos features two men fighting naked while a singer described as the healer Mallam sings for them. The two men engage each other in a fight until they became tired, after which they were made to confess their sins. In one of the confessions, someone is seen in the background slapping the confessor until he admitted to being a wizard. The other man who “refused to confess completely” was given another opponent to continue fighting with.

The two men who were fighting in the opening scene and gave their names as Danjuma and Mohammed are also made to dance naked while the self styled healer Mallam throws sachets of ‘pure water’ at them.

Another scene features two women who within seconds were stripped naked while every attempt they made to cover their nakedness in front of a mammoth crowd was rebuffed. Even the one of the naked women who tried to cover her face was prevented from doing so as she was forced to remove the hands she masked her face with.

Another scenario saw an old woman being tortured with a stun gun to confess that she is a witch. The woman, who looks like one in her 80s, is seen being stunned in the back to force her to confess that she is a witch.

The foregoing are only a tip of the violation of human rights being perpetrated by Hassan Muhammad Nnafene Patigi who claims to be a prophet with ability to heal all kinds of diseases, including stroke, leprosy, blindness, deafness and dumbness, as well as provide remedies for infertility, kleptomania and stillbirth, among others.

It was gathered that Patigi first arrived in Mokwa with claims that he could heal all kinds of illnesses and make barren women productive; a claim that endeared him to many of the town’s residents. This, The Nation learnt, he did for some time before he veered into branding people as witches, stripping them naked, and compelling them to admit that they are witches.

Patigi is then said to make the accused persons undergo all manner of obnoxious treatments like asking people to urinate in their mouths, stoning them with sachet water and causing them to fight themselves naked in public.

Patigi is also accused of asking those who are searching for the fruits of the womb to bring the sum of N11,000 and make them to count the money repeatedly until they are exhausted. The women are then made to hold hands with their husbands for hours before they give the money to Patigi who would pray on it and ask them to come back to collect the money after some days.

Those who give birth to stillborns or witness premature births are made to count charcoals until they are exhausted while those in need of spouses are made to count stones until they are fagged out.

Mokwa residents no longer at ease with him

The foregoing deeds of Patigi were said to have been tolerated by Mokwa residents until he began to brand people as witches and wizards, on account of which many began to suspect his credentials as the Mallam or Sheikh he claimed to be.

Some Mokwa residents who spoke with our correspondent said they were no longer comfortable with Patigi’s style, especially his use for vulgar languages and how he seems to always single out women to torture and taunt them.

One of the residents, who identified himself as Kasim Umar, said that the self styled prophet had tortured a lot of people in his presence as one of those who go to watch them tortured or humiliated until it dawned to him that what the ‘prophet’ was doing was not right.

Umar said: “Hassan (Patigi) tortures old women, married women, young girls and men accused of witchcraft with shocking gadgets. He hauls sachet water at them when they refuse to say what he wants to hear.

“He asks some of his boys to beat them with sticks and even strip them naked. When he does some of these things, people think it is funny, so they laugh at the victims.”

A woman who gave her name as Saida believes that it is wrong for Patigi to force people to confess to practising witchcraft, saying that she no longer goes to the arena to watch  the shows.

She said: “Everything he is doing or has done is not Islamic. Hassan would ask music to be played by his DJs. How can someone who calls himself a prophet go about with DJs? Sometimes, he would ask that a beat be played without lyrics and he would sing to it. It is not Islamic at all.

“When the music is played, he goes around dancing and those who are apparently hypnotised are pushed outside and made to undertake shameful acts. I wonder how people that are made to do undergo these would live with other members of their community without being taunted or embarrassed.”

Uthman Mokwa, one of the cameramen engaged to cover his activities, has had to pull out when the scenes were becoming too obscene. Mokwa, who said he was never Patigi’s supporter, said he withdrew his services because he could no longer bear the sights that confronted him on a daily basis.

Explaining Patigi’s mode of operation, Mokwa said: “Whenever he claims to be doing healings, he would point towards the gullible miracle seekers and turn in a circle while standing on a table. Sometimes, he claims to be using his eye contact to heal people.

“After doing it for about five minutes, he would ask those who had been healed to come out for testimonies. His boys will then give such people the microphone to tell the crowd how they were feeling before and how they are feeling now.

“If any of them says he or she did not feel better, he would chase them out of the line and ask me to delete that part from my camera.

“My major problems with him are, first, the torturing of people accused of witchcraft. I was moved to tears seeing the way an old woman who said she was not a witch tortured and asked to confess. Hassan (Patigi) stood by, watching her being tortured. As young as I am, under that condition of torture and helplessness, I would confess to anything.

“My second problem is the way he strips people naked. These people are human beings and it is wrong.”