Kaduna Residents Rush To Spring For 'Healing'

Without access to health facilities and potable water, residents of Rigasa Community in Igabi local government area of Kaduna State have found solace in a spring, which, they claim, heals their ailments. Some of the residents said they had lived near the spring for decades without knowing the 'healing power' of its water, until a woman with a sick child tapped into its virtues.

The 'mystery water' was discovered about two months ago, residents and others from neighbouring communities in Abuja and Kano have visited the spring in search of healing for their illnesses.

When our correspondent visited the area, some youths were seen taking advantage of the development by selling the water in jerry cans and polythene bags. Women and nursing mothers were seen carrying their sick children to the area to bath them and give them the water to drink.

Malama Fatima (not her real name) said she'd had a pain in her chest for many years and was at the spring to seek a cure.

Another woman, Maimuna (also not her real name) said, 'I came here to fetch this blessed water, because I heard it cures all forms of ailments. I drank the water and fetched for my children to drink too.'

Malam Haruna Tuge Maigulmi, an elder in the community said the healing power of the spring was discovered when a woman took her sick child there and he was healed. 'Really, the water is mysterious, because of the magic it performs in curing all forms of ailments. The water has been coming out of this hole for many years, but we never knew that it performs wonders until a passerby (a woman) gave her sick child to drink and he became well.

'She stood by the hole and tried to give the child the water to drink. An old man, according to her, who was also by the hole, asked her to get a cup from my house, which is close to the spring. She went into my house and by the time she returned, the old man was nowhere to be found. The woman went ahead to give the boy the water and immediately, he was cured,' Maigulmi said.

According to him, the woman then came back to his house to thank him for the cup and narrated her conversation with the mysterious old man.

'It was after she left that people started rushing there to fetch the water to give their sick family members. I saw another woman give her sick child the water and he became well,' he said.

A medical practitioner with the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Dr. Joseph Monday Maigari, told LEADERSHIP Weekend that the healing potency of the spring could only be established after a series of laboratory tests might have been conducted.

'As far as we are concerned in the medical profession, that spring is a mere fallacy. Except it is tested and proven beyond reasonable doubt, I cannot recommend that people should use its water for healing,' Maigari said.