SHOCKING: ABUJA VILLAGES WHERE TWINS ARE SACRIFICED]

SHOCKING: ABUJA VILLAGES WHERE TWINS ARE SACRIFICED] ----------------- The journey into the villages of Tunga, Gomani, Zaiha, Dongoruwa, Tubudu, Kutara, Paiko began from Abuja-Lokoja highway. The connecting village was Dafa. And it was here that we parked our vehicle, hired two motorbikes to continue the journey because of the rough terrain. The villages have a common language called Bassa just as they are united by their cultural heritages. They believe that twin babies are a taboo and the children desecrate the land, and must be dealt with accordingly, i.e. killed. The people are no Christians or Muslims. They are traditionalists. There is total lack of government presence in the communities. No road, pipe- borne water, hospital, school. Yet the villagers vote during elections. They have representatives in the Council Areas, House of Representatives and Senate. Guide and interpreter Before Sunday Vanguard set out on the journey, arrangement had been made with a guide who would also have been the interpreter. But it turned out that the guide could not make it. We resorted to using motorcyclists as interpreters with the villagers. The first port of call was Gomani where we met some men under a tree. They told us there were missionaries in the villages and took us to a building, described as a church, where we had a chat with a 60- year-old man who identified himself as Moses. He is the pastor in charge of the church. He declared that he was posted to the village only recently and that he was yet to know the practices of the people. He viewed the question as to whether twins were being sacrificed in the village with suspicion and declined to answer. Infant mortality Leaving Gomani, we waded through the forest on motorbike until we were greeted by a cluster of mud houses, signposting Tubudu village. On arrival, we met some children playing games. Our presence interrupted their games. One of the boys smartly greeted, “Good afternoon, sir”. We tried to establish a rapport with the people through the boy. But our looks betrayed us as we were marked out among them as total strangers. How to get answers to our enquiries became difficult. We asked for the village head and chiefs but were told that they might have left for their farms. Shrines In a manner that tended to depict “it -is –our- culture- and- therefore -we- will- show it off”, the villagers built shrines that dotted everywhere. In every compound, there was a shrine strategically carved on the wall of a barn, simply announcing that twins had been sacrificed there. Our enquiries produced one resident who claimed not to have been an indigene but had lived in the village for five years. He spoke Hausa and English Languages. The man subjected us to a barrage of questions trying to ascertain our identities and mission. By the time he became convinced, he agreed to talk to us on the condition of anonymity. He was one of the missionaries there on rescue mission. He said his mission was to fight infant mortality. When we shared our experience with him, he said, “If you are a stranger, they will not tell you that they kill twins in the village but if you live among them, they tell you. Bassa people kill twins.” Taboo Our source began his story: “I work for Christian Missionary Foundation in the North Central of Nigeria., I am here because I was posted here and our aim is to reach out to the unreached in Abuja. I have been here for the past five years. My mission here is to stem infant mortality. In this village, they believe a woman is not supposed to give birth to more than a child; so they kill one of the children at birth if they are twins and leave the other because twins are a taboo to them.