As reactions continue to trail the killing of two children – Yusuf (Irfan) and Fatima (Zuhra) – by their own mother Hauwa Habibu in Kano, the lone survivor of the tragedy Aisha Sadiq has narrated how the incident unfolded.

Ten-year-old Aisha Sadiq, a cousin of Hauwa Habibu, sustained machete cuts on her head and other parts of her body, while Irfan and Zuhra died from the injuries inflicted on them by their own mother.
Hauwa is now in police custody even as her husband struggles to come to terms with the fate that befell his two kids.

According to Aisha, Hauwa once accused her and their grandfather of being spirits, of being behind her travails in her matrimonial home, of driving her insane among others.
“There was a night she chased me down the stairs and I ran out. Irfan’s father Ibrahim Haruna Aminu, who was outside, stopped me and asked me what happened. I told him that it was Aunty Hauwau that chased me. So he took me back up, but I was still scared,” Aisha recalled.

She said when her sister noticed how scared was, she asked her what happened, “and I told her that I was chased.” She asked me, “was I the one that chased you?” I said yes. She asked whether they should take me to Umma’s house and I said no.

Aisha also said that on the eve of the tragedy, she was ill and even vomiting and had to be helped by Aunty Saddiqa who passed the night with them and left in the morning.

“Soon after they left the house, Aunty Hauwa locked the house and grabbed Beauty (another name Zuhra was called) by the neck and Irfan started crying. She said won’t you tell me the person that sent you until I kill your wife?
“I said Aunty Hauwa, but Irfan and Beauty are your children. She abused me saying won’t you tell me who sent you? Irfan asked her to call Umma and she abused him. That was when she picked the pestle and started hitting us. I tried opening the door but I could not. She picked up a machete and threatened to strike me with it if I didn’t tell her the person that sent us.

“She said if she recited the Quran she would kill of us, adding that if you touch the verse of God I will kill you and bury you here. When Irfan got scared he now said they were sent from the hospital. She now started striking us with the machete and blood started flowing but she continued. I closed my eyes after she placed Irfan on the floor. Beauty passed out at that point.
“Irfan was in the throes of death but she continued striking him with the machete on his head and then his thigh. She ran back and struck me too and then she struck Beauty in the stomach before she hid the machete in one of the chairs in the room, locked up the house and left. She locked all the entrances, so I could not open the doors.

“I then noticed that she had also brought out her cloths and scattered them all around, same thing with her children’s cloths. She closed all the doors so that those downstairs wouldn’t hear us screaming. Even while hitting us she put a call to Irfan’s father saying we – two women and one man – were trying to kill her. He said he didn’t understand and she said that’s what she saw. He then hung up. She called him again saying he should come and pack the corpses of his children and switched off the phone.

“Before Irfan’s father came, Beauty asked me to help her with water and I did. We both drank the water, but Irfan was already dead at that point. She asked for water again but before I could give her she started gasping for breath and started foaming in the mouth and died,” Aisha said, adding that her sister, who acted alone, was chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ as she was striking them with the machete.
Aisha added that when Irfan’s father came and opened the door with his key and saw what happened, “he uttered inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi rajiun (to God we belong and to Him we return). Irfan had lost lots of blood and his body had become lean and stiff, same with Beauty.”

Also speaking, Hauwa’s husband and father of the deceased children, Ibrahim Haruna Aminu, 39, said on the day of the tragedy, his wife had called him in the morning around 9.55am saying some people had come to the house trying to kill her.
“I asked her who they were and she said two females and one male. I asked her who were in the house with her and she said she was alone. I then asked her what about the kids, she said they were actually the ones trying to kill her. So I urged her to continue praying because even the night before she was not making sense in her comments. I told her that I would be on my way once the rain stopped.

“Five minutes after we spoke she called again and linked me up with the kids. The youngest was the first to speak and she asked for Bobo drink and I said their mother should give her. The other one also asked for the same and I asked their mother to also give him and she hung up. From there I headed straight to house but my car developed fault along the way and I called my friend to help me tow it to the mechanics.

“When I arrived, I started from my father’s place to greet him and then proceeded to my house. I knocked and there was no answer. I used my key and opened the door. I was confronted by the sight of my kids in the pool of their own blood. Aisha however was still alive but with a machete cuts. I asked her what happened and she said Aunty Hauwa killed them. I hurried into our house to alert my parents.
“Some of my relations were angry and even threatened to go after her. I then decided to go to Hauwa’s mother’s house. When I reached the house, I met Hauwa and her mother conversing as if nothing happened. When I told the mother she burst into tears and Hauwa started asking me what had happened,” Ibrahim said.

According to him, Hauwa couldn’t have done what she did in her senses because no sane mother would kill the kids that she labored to give birth to.
“A day to the incident when I went to give them money for breakfast as I was to spend the night at my other wife’s place, she was asking me strange questions, telling me that she was being hounded, seeing strange things and not feeling comfortable. I told her to pray, promising to see her the following morning. This is what I can readily remember,” he said

For her part, Hauwa’s mother said her daughter had been battling with jinn for long, adding that that and been the source of frequent frictions with her husband to the point that she wanted to end the marriage at a point.
The grandmother of the slain kids Binta Ado Nababa told the BBC Hausa that her daughter spent nearly three months having sleepless nights. “She had been complaining of being hounded at night, being subjected to monstrous roaring and the likes. Initially I didn’t take her seriously but I still urged her to be praying constantly about it.