By Ahaoma Kanu
Jeremiah Friday, popularly called Jerry, had always loved going to church and was always thrilled whenever his mother asked him to accompany her to a night vigil. He was always the first to dress up any time his father announces that there was a programme in their local church assembly; he loved the stories normally told by their teachers during Sunday school and the occasional celebrations held by the church. He always looked forward to Christmas when the Pastor would invite all the kids home to be fed with local nuts, a sizeable quantity of rice and a soft-drink without either of his parents around to make those sign languages imploring him to be a gentleman.
That night during the service marked a turning point in the life of 10-year-old Jerry as he was singled out of the crowd of worshippers that believed in divine interventions in all their situations which ultimately will lead to their breakthroughs. Jerry was accused by the Prophetess of the church as a wizard behind the assumed misfortunes of his family and in their belief in the biblical order of not allowing a witch to live, he was put through an ordeal that got him disfigured physically, psychologically and emotionally: his father poured fuel on him and set him ablaze after which he was put on fasting for three days with no First aid administered to his burns.
The story of Jerry is one, among the over 150 kids being rehabilitated at the Childs’s Rights and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN) located at Ikot Afaha in Eket Local Government Area of Akwa-Ibom State where children from the ages of eight months to 16 years are tortured, denounced, abandoned and killed all because they are perceived to be witches or wizards. Each of these abused children had a story to tell.
“I was staying with my brother in
Lagos before I came back home. When they took me to church, the prophetess said I was a witch; I was given a medicine to drink so that I would vomit the witch-craft. I resisted, but my aunty forced me to take the medicine: it was bitter. They later asked me to go home. After a week, aunty brought me to Eket and when my brother saw me he was annoyed and accused me of killing my parents and his child. They started beating me. They then plugged an electric pressing iron and started burning me with it. All my body was burnt and all the while they were asking me to confess that I was a witch. My brother Ime was holding a Bible and asked me to confess,” 11-year- old Comfort Bassey revealed when
Nigerian Village Square visited the centre recently. She showed her laps that had burns scars from the ordeal.
According to Sam Ituama, the President and founder of the centre, the siege on the children had been on for close to a decade now.
“This child witch-hunting has been going on for a long time, but it gained momentum when a home movie produced by Helen Ukpabio, a popular preacher, entitled End of the Wicked was released. That film almost took the already bad situation to another level,” he said.
The supposedly Christian-related movie, released in 1998 depicted how children were initiated into witch-craft and used to cause spiritually-manipulated misfortunes in their families and thus started an organised holocaust on defenceless children. It took the efforts of 29-year-old Sam to establish CRARN in 2003.
“I established the centre because of an incident I witnessed as a student when I saw three children that came to a market at Eket to beg for food being attacked by the traders in the market who accused them of being witches that were holding down the progress of the market causing them not to be making good sales. I intervened in the matter and went back. Two weeks later when I came, I discovered that another two kids were attacked on the same reason. Before I knew, other children in Eket and Akwa Ibom as a whole were being attacked and killed. I started contacting some of my friend who had some amount of influence in government to stop the menace but he informed me that the situation could not be tackled without involving a civil rights association so we had to start up the centre,” he said.
The situation was springing up but was given adequate attention by the government. It took a different dimension when the kids started getting killed because they could not defend themselves after the movie was released and some churches raised accusations that some of the kids were practising witch-craft. In fact, according to Sam, the religious sects of the Christian community were responsible for the overtaking of the situation.
“Some of these churches, mainly the Pentecostal churches, contributed to the increase in many of these incidents. It got to a point that one starts looking at the churches as being the catalyst to creating catastrophes in the family. Almost all the witch-doctors that were hitherto involved in their traditional practice have changed to become Christians by starting up churches and prayers houses to actually compel people and create fear in them by telling them that someone was responsible for what was happening to them, most of the people accused are children,” he said.
Some of the victims of the senseless attacks have something in common: a scar to show for what they had gone through. Jerry has a burnt face; Etido Peter Gabriel finds it difficult to walk properly due to the burns on his leg, while Nweaka Ofon who had a three-inch nail driven into her head is now in a mentally-retarded condition. They might be regarded as being lucky since they are alive to tell their stories, many died as a result of the torture they experienced.
Some of the churches guilty of passing sentences on these children in the name of divine revelations include the
Methodist Church and many Pentecostal churches. It is amazing that despite the huge presence of some of the well-established and respectable churches in the region, none stood up to condemn the cruel action in the community when it was a common knowledge that the evil was prevalent. But the Catholic Church and the
Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Days Saint are exceptional in this regard.
Both churches had been playing a major role in the rehabilitation of the children at the centre. The Catholic Church parishes have been providing amenities to the centre, while the
Church of Jesus For Latter Days Saints not only equipped it with beds and other furniture, but also sunk a borehole for them.
The centre consists of three blocks: the administrative block which also doubles as the school, the boy’s dormitory and the girl’s hostel as well as the kitchen and store house which are in life- threatening dilapidated conditions and could collapse at any moment. The male hostel consists of 20 beds while the girls has 28 double-bunk beds though most of them without mattresses and blanket to shield the children from the cold at night. When NVS visited the children at night to have a feel of how they sleep, it was a very pathetic sight seeing many of them sprawled on the hard floor without protection from the chilly night breeze.
Many of the rooms in the hostel lacked doors while the windows have no protective barriers like mosquito nettings or burglary proofs; iron nettings are improvised for the ceilings in the female hostel while the boys dormitory has no ceiling. The children are therefore exposed to possible attacks by lethal creatures like snakes, scorpions and so on, a condition that their resident care-taker, Mr Monday Umoh raised fears about.
“The children are endangered at night and that is why we want people to come and help us. That is why as I reside here I have sleepless nights because I have this fear of intruders coming in and attacking the kids. We need people to come and help us and provide the necessities. Stepping Stones, a United Kingdom-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) formed by Gary Foxcroft, a Briton from
Lancaster has been helping us a lot. We want the government to take this issue seriously,” he said.
Another facility lacking in the centre is a clinic to take care of the children’s health. There is no provision for these as the centre cannot afford to maintain one. It takes the wife of the president who is a trained nurse to take care of health issues in the centre but the more serious cases are referred to a more appropriate health care centre at the nearby Eket town.
Feeding is also another challenge and the centre depends on their limited donor partners to help out.
“We have donors; there is a lady here, her name is Mrs. Ngozi Umemba and her husband, Humphrey helps us a lot. The Catholic Church and individuals. Another fantastic donor that has done greatly for this centre is the
Church of Jesus Christ for Latter Day Saints sends us food items,” Sam reveals.
On the day NVS visited, the children had rice and beans for lunch, all cooked in the centre’s dilapidating kitchen. The girls help the cooks out in preparing the meals while the boys handle the more tasking chores of fetching water and cutting the firewood. They later queue for their rations as the cook dishes out the food in the lined up plates. The meal may not be as tasty and nutritious as expected for the development and proper growth of their young minds and bodies, but the kids ate with their bare hands, with love, appreciation and gratitude that at least the centre is providing their daily bread. They may have been rejected and abandoned but they have found love in the hearts of people who really care for them.
To cater for their educational training, the centre with a staff of six teachers runs a school for the children. Four of them are registered in a secondary school far from the centre because many schools stigmatize them as having the powers to infect other students. The stigma even obtains in the
Steeping Stones Model School located at Uquo, Esit Eket , built by the Steeping Stones, a United Kingdom-based Non-Governmental Agency (NGO) in partnership with the state government with a mandate that the children from the centre will be beneficiaries of the institution. However, the community banished students from the centre for fear of initiated their wards into witchcraft.
The good fortune of the centre started last month when a league of foreign journalists from the
United Kingdom visited the country for a documentary entitled “Saving Africa's Witch Children which was broadcast on
Wednesday, November 12, 2008 in the Channel 4 Television in the
UK. Since then, the state government had woken up from its slumber to tackle the menace by arresting offending pastors in violation of the Child’s right Act passed earlier in the year but the fear still remaining in the hearts of many observers is whether the government is playing to the gallery in a face saving venture. Sam confided to NVS that what ever the government’s action may be, he is prepared to pay the supreme sacrifice to defend the children.
“As far as me and my team are alive, we will keep on fighting this menace until it stops.
For Udoh who is surprised that he is witnessing an abominable act whereby children are attacked, his dream is to see these once bundles of joy now tagged endangered species, accepted back by the society.
“As a retiree, I feel happy being a father to these kids and I do it for humanitarian purposes. I can’t do nothing more but I try to make life easier for these kids. One of my dreams is to see the society accept these kids as normal human beings. If we achieve that, I will feel fulfilled in life.”
The kids are targets because they can’t defend themselves----Sam Ikpe-Ituama
He witnessed some kids being persecuted for a sin they were innocent of and that incident inspired him to start a movement that protects and takes care of the children perceived to be witches. In this interview, Sam Ikpe-Ituama, President of the Child’s Rights and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN) explains why he took up the challenge to become the defender of the children condemned by the community as witches and wizards.
I am Sam Ikpe-Ituama, the president of Child Right and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN). It was established 2003 when three children were attacked in a market close to where I am living when I came back from school in Calabar to visit my late mother who was hospitalised then. I enquired and found out that their only reason for being persecuted was because they came to beg and the traders believed that they were witches that were holding down the progress of the market and prevented people from making good sales. I intervened and talked to the people. I went back to school and on returning back home two weeks later, I discovered another two children held there; it became a continuous exercise. Before you could know it, other children in different part of Eket and
Akwa Ibom State as a whole were being attacked equally. I tried to work towards making government intervene in the problem and called on some of my friend that had some kind of influence in government for help and assistance to stop the killing of people who were branded witches. So in 2004, we got a friend who went to the government and was told that the situation could not at the moment be handled without involving a civil society organisation or a Non-Governmental Organisation. That was how we started CRARN.
When they government said that the issue could not be handled, did they mean that attacking the children alone was not a crime?
Unfortunately the children issue and child abandonment due to witchcraft was springing on at different spots but the killing of the kids was not widespread before people started believing that the elderly ones initiated these children. We went to the police and reported these cases and we decided to drum up support for our cause but many of them thought that people were somewhere created information that never existed. Many were in doubt of what we were talking about even many people never believed in our website after we started but the information we were getting were real; children were being killed, thrown into the river, buried alive, burnt and tortured to death. Some of them were poisoned with a local berry called Eseri, but people never believed.
Do you have an idea how old this myth about witchcraft maybe?
The witchcraft persecution started exactly 10 years ago when a home made video was released, the name of the film is The End of the Wicked and it was a very popular film in
Nigeria and
Akwa Ibom State. Before then, the issue of witchcraft has been there but it was attributed to the elderly and the retched then; it has been there before I was born. It took a different turn when children became a target. You know, the elderly ones they call witches are not too strong; nobody will accuse an able-bodied man of being a witch. They cannot say that Sam is a wizard because they know I am big and strong but if you are aged and weak, you are a witch, that was then but the film when it was released in 1998 portrayed how the children are initiated into the witchcraft kingdom to attack people and cause all kinds of misfortune. In fact any problem that any person experiences will be attributed to witchcraft; it got so bad that you could get drunk and blame a witch for drinking off your limit. We have carried out research and found that these witchcraft accusations does not exist, it is a non-issue because certain situations has made me believe it is a hoax. I also discovered that the Christian community in
Akwa Ibom State is involved in the catalysis of this issue.
Did the Christian community affect it positively or negatively?
On the negatively side
Can you explain what you mean in clear words?
What I am trying to say is that the issue of witchcraft has been a traditional belief actually but the Christian community or pastors are now mixing the traditional belief with the Christian doctrine in such a way that the children are the victims. It gets to a point that one starts looking at Christianity as an institution of problem that instigates catastrophes to so many families in the sense that they, through their divinity, bring confusion into these homes. When the churches started with their divinity and spiritually revelation of somebody being a witch, all the traditional doctors have closed their shrines and started up a church where they will equally reveal through their gods that someone is a witch; they have put up prayer houses and create fear in the minds of people by making them believe that someone is behind anything wrong in that person’s life. I was once upon a time a believer that witches existed but now, I don’t think like that again. I remember that my father never took that issue serious.
What were the initial challenges when you started the centre?
We suffered a lot by trying to convince the government; we tried to get them to listen to us and look at the documents we had been gathering so far. We tried to get the support of the wife of the then Chairman of Eket L.G.A and he was on our side and helped us a lot by talking to her husband. We involved the state government and I remember the Ministry of Women Affairs, then Prof. Ekaette Etuk was the commissioner and she helped us a lot at that time. Our major challenge was that the children were constantly being attacked by the community and we were attacked also, I mean our staff. We had to report all these assaults to the police and later to the State Security Service agents and I would say that they were very helpful to us. The DPO of Eket at that time, Udoka, was very helpful and had a listening ear to our cries then; he made sure that any of our properties damaged by the people were replaced. I remember a time we took the kids out on sporting activities around Eket and our action flared tempers from the community leaders; they sent people to warn us to stop bringing the children around them again but we continued with what we were doing. I later got to know that the people planted themselves on our way with guns to attack us so we reported the matter to the SSS and they foiled the plans and that made me know that government were really behind us.
You started this relief organisation for these kids when you witnessed them been attacked, how were the initial early days and how rampant was the situation then?
Before the establishment of CRARN in 2003, I had been taking care of them since 2000. I discovered that children were being abandoned and stigmatized as witches and wizards, I also discovered that there was a pogrom was carried out on these kids and more than 200 were killed in Eket alone. It wasn’t an easy task. It was very rampant and it was because of the rampant nature of the situation that we knew we had to start off a movement to stop the killing in the community. It happened in own community where some of the people accused were tied up and asked to confess to being witches, many denied and were killed while some more wise ones agreed to being witches but good witches that untie people’s lucks, those good witches were spared. We tried to talk to the people and enlighten them to stop killing people that they assume are witches and charged them to obey the Commandment of God which emphasizes that killing is a sin.
Like the Prophet that confessed to killing 110 kids; he might have killed that much. So it was rampant at that time and we cannot actually put a number to those that died but many died as a result of this menace of being branded as witches and wizards.
What are the ages of the kids that are labelled witches or wizards?
They don’t have any particular age they start from.
Can a year old child be branded a witch?
Even a three months old baby can be said to be a witch; it has become a maddening situation now and getting worse. They believe the spell is transferable to babies also. They may threaten maybe a child to know if he or she had initiated the baby, the child will accent to their threats and they will now be left with the option to do away with the baby that they cannot question to know if she has the spell or not. Everything tends towards people without a say in the matter; people that cannot defend themselves, they are the victims. They cannot accuse able-bodied strong men or rich men in the society as being witches because such person will match them; they look out for the vulnerable ones to target. But I will say that the belief that people are witches is a myth that has been overblown to the extent that if a witch concoction and poison is kept here and people are asked to choose from, they would prefer the poison to the witch spell. It is really a problem here in
Akwa Ibom State.
How many kids do you have at the centre?
The children keep running into sometimes 150-155; it keeps increasing and reducing in units of one or two but at the most five with out efforts to reconcile some of then with their parents. The situation has become that of children being brought to the centre on weekly basis. What we do is this; when we see a child come in, we take it up on ourselves the battle of reconciling that child with the parents.
How successful are those reconciliations?
The reconciliation is a very cardinal process to us but also the moist difficult task that we are facing. Over the years, we may have reconciled up to 250 children with their families.
Do you normally run a check on the children reconciled with their parents to make sure a relapse of them being treated as witches doesn’t occur?
Yes, we go back and check them and it is also a difficult task doing that because some of them live at the riverine areas and in far places and these checks also need money for transportation for us. We have got on records from our volunteers that some of the kids are rejected. In July, some UNICEF officials came around and we went on checking some of the children that were reconciled and we found so many of them happy to be with their families. The reconciliation processes is of two types; reconciling a child who has been in the centre for quite a long time say three or four years is one thing and another is reconciling a child who has just been sent out or thrown away or abandoned. For the child who has been in the centre for a long time, we have two ways of talking to the parents. Firstly we try to let the parent know the child is not a witch and, depending on the response of the parent, we let tell them that the child has been delivered by some missionaries from America and United Kingdom; many of them know we work with some foreign missionaries and they see us with them and they believe that the Whiteman has extra powers to deliver witchcraft. For those brought to the centre, we accept the children and don’t argue with them on whether the kids are witches or not because if you argue with them then it means that you don’t want that child alive in that community. We accept the child and tell them that we will deliver the child. We keep the child for some time and counsel the child and make him know that truly that he or she has never been a witch. Often times when these children are brought here, we ask them to initiate us into their kingdom; we give them bread or other edible things to infect with witchcraft and some of them will agree. We eat these things in their presence and nothing happens to us. After some time we will ask the child, why did you did not come to take us to your coven, some of them reply that they couldn’t because we are too strong. With time that child will realize that we are mocking him or her. We find out that these children later become happy to know that somebody believes they are not witches and then they open up and confess that everywhere you say you are not a witch, you are beaten so the best thing for them is to comply and confess to being witches so they will not be beaten but thrown out. In doing that we change their mindset from believing they are witches. Some of these ones are very intelligent while some, due to the torture, cannot assimilate quickly. In dealing with these kids we have found out that these kids are threatened and made to pass through an ordeal which forces them to accept to being witches. I am happy that today that all that we have been shouting that these children are witches is now a subject of concern in the country and in the world.
Yes this is largely due to the foreign journalists that came around and made the world see what has been happening for so many years. How did you meet them?
The name of the journalist is Max Gaven and she came with her partner, Joost; we call them Max and Joost. They came across a news report in the UK Guardian that said that children were targets of Nigerian witch hunt. They came at a time we were about to launch our Prevent Abandonment of Children Today (PACT) campaign, they came to cover the event. They came here and conducted their interviews and research and because they were at Esit Eket, they believed that everywhere in Akwa Ibom was Esit Eket. So when they went back they wrote that it was only happening at Esit Eket but it is a serious issue in Cross River State and there is no denying that fact; it is happening at Ogbogobri, White Market, Calabar Road and so on. We have these kids at
Aba in
Abia State and spreading. The UK Guardian must have gone through our website and saw the situation there before they wrote us requesting to come and do a documentary. We consented and they came in February and went back. Later they came back in April with the Channel 4 group and did the documentary that was broadcasted. The result of the documentary is overwhelming but I must say that what you saw in the documentary is just a flash in the pan compared to the real situation but we thank God that the government is paying attention.
I saw some of the children going to school and will like to know how you hope to integrate them into the society?
We will always work towards reconciliation. Some of those children you saw are growing out of primary school age so we decided to start giving them primary education here in the centre. Many of them are bring rejected in many schools around; they are stigmatized and rejected out rightly, even the Stepping Stones Model School which the government assisted in building with the hope that children from the centre can benefit from, had the indigenes of the community rising against having the kids come there. We withdrew them so that they will not harm them. We have volunteers and teachers that teach them and we are working hard to put other facilities in place. We thank the efforts of the then State governor, Victor Attah, who donated to the
Stepping Stones Model School but we have been rejected and this reminds me that part of the fund that was supposed to be used for the feeding of these children was used to put up some blocks here.
How many teachers do you have at the moment?
We have seven teachers of which I am the head teacher; we have three carers and two management staff. We are still optimistic of employing an accountant, security and many other hands. Right now, we don’t have the funds to pay but we believe that people will partner with us in this regard. The present State governor has also promised to help us. For those we have to put into secondary schools, we take them to very far schools because those nearby has rejected them and we are faced with the challenge of paying for their transport of which we don’t have much funds. Some children in the centre are being trained in some trade like automobile, sewing, and other kinds of trade.
I saw the school compound and there was no fence around it which poses a security threat; I also saw the windows that has no blinds and I also did not see any medical centre out there and I want to ask how you take care of their medical needs because I saw some one year old children out there that are really vulnerable to diseases?
First I will like to answer by thanking my colleagues in CRARN because they are so committed to their work. Yes we don’t have the facilities for them medically but what we do is that we take them to the hospital for treatment if a case is severe and at such time, we pay the bills; nothing is subsidized for us. There are cases that are just treated at the centre; we have volunteers that come here once in a while and again, most of the not-so-serious cases are handled by my wife, Elle, who trained as a nurse. We have plans of employing other nurses to be here permanently. We appeal to Nigerians and the government to come to our aid in this regard because on so many occasions we have emergencies that require immediate medical intervention.
I also saw some of the beds without mattresses and some of the kids were sleeping on the floor, is that despite what has been revealed, the government did not see these necessities?
When you talk about the government, I have a complaint; the information officer in the government house may not brief the governor very well on the situation on ground. I believe that the governor is well away of our needs here. I believe that the present governor, Mr. Goodswill Akpabio, is really concerned about helping us and has been sending some delegations here. The names of these kids have been taken and I want to believe that they are working out modalities on how to help us.
You told me last night that since the Child’s Right Act was passed, the issue has been taken more seriously than before and that you are part of the squad that is involved in the onslaught on erring pastors, how successful has the campaign been so far?
The government is concerned and since they watched that documentary, they became very aware of the situation. The State governor has ordered that these so called men of God should be apprehended. Last weekend, the pastor that claimed to have killed 110 kids was arrested; I did the reconnaissance for the police and he was apprehended. He is just one of the thousands of these Bishops that propagate this evil. I took the Channel 4 guys to him and he roped himself in thinking he was getting publicity. The government is actually arresting these pastors; we arrested more recently and it will be a continuous process. But the problem we are facing now with the police is that some of them that are indigenes of this part of the state are protecting their part of the state to be investigated; I have complained to the head about this attitude and they promised to look into it.
You said that you have been receiving threat calls and I will like to ask, are you not afraid because where the centre does not have much security?
We will soon erect a fence around the centre because it is very necessary that we do that but for myself and death threats, you know, I have put myself into this issue and I can’t withdraw it. I must see this fight to the end and whether I come out alive or not is inconsequential. This pogrom involves children and I will not abandon the fight. I am not saying I will be careless with my life and security, I know that these pastors being arrested have followers who may want to attack us in reprisal attacks, we know that but we can’t stop now because we have gone far. What we have done is likened to us planting a seed that is growing and spreading against the earlier belief of alleging children are witches. I will not step down and I know that God will be on our side.
My parents set me ablaze----Jerry
Jerry was born on valentine day but he is a million miles away from parental love but has instead of affection and a caring father, marks indicating burns on his face, a constant reminder of the pain and ordeal his parents and their church prophetess made him pass through all in the name of him being a wizard.
What is your name and how old are you?
I am Jeremiah Friday. I am 10 years old.
Can you remember your birth date?
I was born on
14th February 1998.
Where is your father?
He stays in town.
When was the last time you saw him?
It has been very long since I saw him.
Does he normally come here to visit you?
He came only once and since then I have not set my eyes on him.
Why are you in this centre?
My parents claimed that I am a witch (wizard).
When did that happen?
It happened in November 2006.
What happened that made him accuse you of being a wizard?
It was when we went to church for a programme.
What is the name of the church?
City of
Grace Mission International. When the Prophetess was leading praise and worship, she came down from the pulpit and slapped me and dragged me out from the church saying that I am a witch (wizard). When that occurred, my mother pushed me into the plantain farm and pressed my neck but the pastor came out and told her to stop and she did. They then accused me and my sister that we were witches.
Where is your sister right now?
She is at home with them. They put us in fasting that night and we fasted for three days; it started on a Thursday. On the third day my father came and took me to a primary school and beat me and my mother joined him.
How many are you in your family?
We are six
Which position do you occupy?
I am the first in the family.
Were you the only one they singled out as a witch?
It was myself and my sister, Rita. When I got home I escaped and came to this place.
Tell me how you got to this centre and how you got the burns on your face?
It happened on a Sunday when the Pastor’s wife came to our wife and kept saying I was the witch that was destroying my family.
What is the name of the pastor?
His name is Pastor Ben Peter while his wife is Grace Peter.
Do they have kids of their own?
No they don’t.
What happened that fateful Sunday?
She came and told my parents that I don’t want to leave the witchcraft kingdom and that I was the one tying my father’s destiny and blessing from God and that I was the one holding him from going to work; he works in the offshore section of an oil company and it was not yet his turn to go on offshore duties. The prophetess said that I was responsible for him not been listed as those to be on duty and he was waiting for his colleagues to come back but it happened that they took longer time in returning. My father came asked me to go and lose his right so that he would go to work but I told him that I was not the one holding him. He beat me up and then went and brought fuel and matches and poured the fuel on me and set me on fire.
What was your mother doing when he brought out the petrol and matches?
She was beating me and held me so that my father could pour the fuel on me. My father poured the fuel on me and set me on fire.
What were your other siblings doing at that moment?
My sister, Rita that was accused along with me ran away when she saw what my father did to me.
Can you remember the area you live?
Afomkwa in Eket; the house does not have a number.
When he set you ablaze what did your mother do?
It was when I started crying out in pains that they tore the clothes I was wearing to stop the fire but by then, my face and chest had been burnt, I was in pains. The pastors’s wife and my mother started laughing at me saying that that was the work of the devil that I was doing that was being returned to me, she said that whatsoever a person sows, so shall he reap.
Did they take you to the hospital when you were burnt and in pains?
No.
What did they do?
They kept me there in the house for three days.
Did anybody administer first aid to you or treat your burns?
No. After three days, when my mother came back from the market, she brought an ointment and used cotton wool to dab the liquid on my burns.
Were they still calling you a witch then?
Yes.
How did you escape?
I kept me in the house and the pastor’s wife came to the house and accused me of bewitching my sister so that she will not grow fat; I and my sister were slim. She said that I was responsible and sucking her blood. She also said that I gave my sister water to drink in the witchcraft world which made her not to grow fat. She told my parents to make us fast for three days.
Were you made to fast with your untreated burns?
Yes. On the third day, my sister was very thirty and I did not know what to do as we were locked inside.
When all these were happening, were your neighbours aware of this?
No, we were locked inside. I forced on of the doors open to get water for my sister but when I heard my other siblings coming, I knew I would be in trouble so I hid under the bed but I knew she would see me so I went out and started behaving like a ghost. When she saw me, she ran out of the house and I ran out from the door she opened and went to a street that had Helen Ukpabio’s church on it. I entered the bush and went through
Udofia Street to one of my friend house and told him everything that happened. She advised me to wait for her mother to come home and when she did and heard my story, she gave me food and introduced me to her husband, Hon. Paul. I slept with them for two days before he called the president of CRARN to come and pick me. I have been staying here since then.
Were you attending school before this whole incident?
Yes.
Which school were you in?
I was in primary three at
International Primary School before the wife of the pastor said that I was a witch since nursery school.
Before all these accusations, did you know what witchcraft was all about?
They said a witch is a person that does not make another person prosper.
How do you feel about what your father and mother did to you?
(Pauses)….
Do you see them as your parents and can you forgive them for the pains and trauma that they put you through?
(Pauses)…….I will not forgive them.
My brother burnt me with a pressing iron—Comfort Bassey
Comfort Bassey, 15 years old has a gory story to share on how her brother and his wife accused him of killing their baby and subjected her to being burnt using a pressing iron.
What’s your name?
My name is Comfort Bassey.
Why are you here?
My people said that I am a witch.
How old are you?
I am 15 years old.
Why did they say you are a witch?
I was taken to a church and the Prophetess in
Shallom Church at Iduak said that I am a witch.
How many are you in your house?
We are many but my parents are dead.
Who were you staying with?
I was staying with my brother in
Lagos before I came back home. When they took me to church, the prophetess said I was a witch; I was given a medicine to drink so that I would vomit the witchcraft. I resisted but my Aunty forced me to take the medicine; it was bitter. They later asked me to go home. After a week, aunty brought me to Eket and when my brother saw me he was annoyed and accused me of killing my parents and his child. They started beating me. Thieves came to our house and they said I was the one that sent the thieves to the house. They then plugged an electric pressing iron and started burning me with it. All my body was burnt and all the while they were asking me to confess that I was a witch. My brother Ime was holding a bible and asked me to confess. After a time, his baby took ill and died and they brought the body from the hospital and beat me saying that I was the one that killed the child. They beat me with firewood and wanted to throw me into a river but I said that I would confess that I was a witch and the pastor asked them to allow me confess. They beat me with firewood and burnt my laps. They claimed it was a woman that was our neighbour that gave me the witchcraft. I escaped and ran to this place.
How have you been treated here?
They have been treating me fine.
If you are asked to go back to your brother’s house, will you go?
I will never enter there because they will kill me.
A
Methodist Church Reverend said I am a witch—Ekemini Okonobia
What is your name?
My name is Ekemini Okonobia?
How old are you?
I am 12 years old.
How did you come to the centre?
I came here when I was taken to the church and our Reverend said that I am a witch.
Which church is that?
It is the
Methodist Church at Eket. When I got to the church that night, the Reverent prayed and came down from the pulpit and dragged me to the front of the church and announced that I am a witch. He beat me and asked me to confess.
What is the name of the Reverend?
Reverend Ekedidiong Moses.
Who did you go to church?
I went with my parents and when the Reverend proclaimed me a witch, my father tied my arms to my back with a rope when we got home and put me in a house where we put our goats and left me there for seven days. I became very thirsty and when I asked my brother to give me water to drink, she refused. Later my father asked my brother to untie me and send me away. There was man that lives in Esit Eket that brought me here.
Where was your mother while all these were happening?
She was hospitalized at that time.
What did she do when she learnt what happened?
She did nothing.
When did you come to the centre?
Last year.
Which class are you in?
I am in Primary two.
Are you happy being here?
I am very happy.
Do they treat you nicely here?
Yes.
What do you want to say to Uncle Sam?
Thank You and May God bless you.
__________________________
A Methodist Church Reverend said I am a witch—Ekemini Okonobia
I went with my parents and when the Reverend proclaimed me a witch, my
father tied my arms to my back with a rope when we got home and put me
in a house where we put our goats and left me there for seven days. I
became very thirsty and when I asked my brother to give me water to
drink, she refused. Later my father asked my brother to untie me and
send me away. There was man that lives in Esit Eket that brought me
here.
What is your name?
My name is Ekemini Okonobia?
How old are you?
I am 12 years old.
How did you come to the centre?
I came here when I was taken to the church and our Reverend said that I am a witch.
Which church is that?
It
is the Methodist Church at Eket. When I got to the church that night,
the Reverent prayed and came down from the pulpit and dragged me to the
front of the church and announced that I am a witch. He beat me and
asked me to confess.
What is the name of the Reverend?
Reverend Ekedidiong Moses.
Who did you go to church?
I
went with my parents and when the Reverend proclaimed me a witch, my
father tied my arms to my back with a rope when we got home and put me
in a house where we put our goats and left me there for seven days. I
became very thirsty and when I asked my brother to give me water to
drink, she refused. Later my father asked my brother to untie me and
send me away. There was man that lives in Esit Eket that brought me
here.
Where was your mother while all these were happening?
She was hospitalized at that time.
What did she do when she learnt what happened?
She did nothing.
When did you come to the centre?
Last year.
Which class are you in?
I am in Primary two.
Are you happy being here?
I am very happy.
Do they treat you nicely here?
Yes.
What do you want to say to Uncle Sam?
Thank You and May God bless you.
___________________________
The kids are abandoned on a daily basis---Esieme Nnyangha Akpan Umoh.
When she saw the vacancy and filled in to get a job, she never believed acts such as labelling children witches was very rampant but ever since she signed up with CRARN, Esieme Umoh, who is the centre’s secretary, reveals that the phone rings on a daily basis informing them of children abandoned as a result of their bring assumed as witches.
How did you get informed with this association?
Ever since I came back from Calabar, I applied for the job and came for the interview in July and started working with them in August this year.
When you were applying for the job, did you know what it entails?
Yes because ever since I came back I was aware of the stigmatization of some people who are labelled as witches but I don’t believe in what they were saying. I was aware I would be working for kids accused of being witches before I came in.
You were aware that this situation was exiting but did you know it was happening in this magnitude when you saw the number of kids here?
No I never knew it was this bad until I came here.
How did you feel when you saw the situation prevailing at the centre?
I had sympathy for them; I called one of them and started talking to them and asked them various questions from whether they belonged to the witchcraft world and their family background to other issues because I was compiling their record. I got so many tales of woes. I have been praying for them ever since. My job as the office secretary makes me closer to the kids and I get their information and details; those incoming children and outgoing ones.
What do you mean by outgoing children?
Our work involves doing some unification processes and endeavours with the family; we visit their families and try to make them understand that they are been made to believe what is not true and we counsel them in order to take their kids back. Most of them have been reconciled with their families.
You started working with CRARN in September this year; can you give an idea how many kids you have witnessed abandoned?
Precisely close to 30 kids.
That’s quite a huge number and does the frequent abandonment of these kids scare you?
Of course it does some of them are very young to be left; the youngest of the them was a year and five months at the time she was left here, her name is Favour and she is from Oron.
How do you get the names of the young ones that come here?
I ask them and try as much as possible to get any information out from them. I show them love and after a couple of time, they will open up.
What about the younger ones, the babies that can’t reveal much?
We start by asking people around if they know the kids and if we employ all that process and it does not work we give them names. The girl you were carrying earlier we gave the name Emilia.
Can you tell me about a particular case involving these kids that touched you most?
I think Comfort’s case touched me most; she is about 11 years and she went through a lot of torture. We went to the parents and tried to counsel them but they never wanted to hear anything about their own daughter; they threatened that if we bring her back they will kill her. This is a girl that has gone through different phases of torture but she is still moving on.
Are there times some of these kids’ situations bring tears to your eyes?
Many times, the case of Nwaeka who had a nail driven into her head; the first day I saw her, the way she was dressed and looking helplessly and dirty, I was moved to tears. I wondered why on earth someone’s parents can do that to her and the wound has affected her brain.
How is CRARN alerted on some of these cases?
We do get calls and also Good Nigerians bring the kids here while a greater number are abandoned at our doorstep.
How often does the phone ring on the issue?
Every minute, every hour.
I saw some of the kids carrying buckets of water to the kitchen, they task themselves on that and I have been made to understand the borehole they get water from was put up by the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints; there is a huge presence of churches in this region and I will want to ask if these many churches assist what you do?
The Catholic helps us a lot but the Pentecostal churches do nothing to help us because they are the ones propagating this witch syndrome thing. So if you call someone a witch, I don’t see you giving alms to that person.
How has working in this environment affected you as a woman?
It has touched me in a lot of ways and I know that as a young girl with prospects of getting married one day, I will not give birth to a child that I can not take care of.; let us live within our means.
How do you look at these women that subject their children to such living as we have here?
They need education.
How do you feel about Government involvement with this problem?
They have started listening to our cries since the documentary on Channel 4 occurred and that is a good development.
I have never seen a society attack children---Monday Udoh
He is elderly and has travelled around the world but not in his wildest dreams did he ever believe he would witness the evil prevailing in his community. Resident Carer at CRARN, Mr. Monday Udoh blames the churches around for propagating the hate ministry that destroys the children’s futures.
Please Sir, can you introduce yourself?
I am Monday Jacob Udoh and I started working here in
November 7th 2006. I am over 60.
You are a father and have seen some many years, how long has these been happening?
To the best of my knowledge, these child witches issue started when a movie by Madam Helen Ukpabio of Liberty Gospel Church came out with the movie, End of the Wicked. When the movie was released, this child issue thing reared its head.
Dou have an idea of the number of victims these this problem have claimed their lives?
Many! Some are unknown and done in the secret; they are thrown into the high sea without anyone’s knowledge so we cannot put a number to who many victims we have. It was until the birth of CRARN that the issue started getting attention.
Tell me about the first time you resumed working here as the Resident Carer?
The first one week exposed me to so many horrible situations; I never thought of or dreamt about seeing this kind of thing in my life. I have travelled widely and have never seen a community stigmatizing children when the adults were there. It was a very horrible situation for me.
As an elderly person, what is the real cause of people thinking in this direction against children?
I think religious comments, difficulties of being a parent and maybe when you are not able to achieve what you want to get in life contributes to the situation we have today.
You mentioned a movie by Helen Ukpabio’s contributing largely to what we have today, has she in any way proffered solutions to the carnage we are witnessing?
I don’t think she has had a change of heart over the issue; she still has conviction that she can deliver children from witchcraft because it is a means for them to make money through exorcism. They make nonsense of the bible principles we know as Christians.
Have there been moments when you get moved to tears with the conditions of the children you care for?
I shed tears because many of these kids are from broken homes and that is a problem. Some of these parents divorce their wives and get new wives and when she does not give them offspring’s on time, the new wife will take these children to church to find out the cause of her inability to take in and the pastor in order to entice her and get more members, will put the blame on the child and there starts another horrible life for that child. On of the moments I shed tears was when we arrested and took Jerry’s father to court over what he did him; when we heard about this incident, we called in the police and Jerry’s father was apprehended and prosecuted at the
Magistrate Court at Eket. He appeared and Jerry appeared. When the case was tried and the Lady Magistrate asked Jerry the same question you asked him now about his parents, what he wanted her to do, Jerry paused as he just did. In the court hall, the mother had his three other siblings and they were all girls and were weeping. Jerry could not easily answer the Magistrate the question but he later bowed his head and asked the Magistrate to forgive the father because of his siblings; he reasoned that if his father is imprisoned, there would be nobody to take care of his sisters. Because of that request, the Magistrate granted Jerry’s request and forgave the father but he was made to sign an undertaking because his case carried a prison sentence of 25 years but because of Jerry who went through the ordeal and still had a heart to forgive him and pleaded on his behalf, she set him free. When this child was given back to him, he started ill treating him so he found himself back to the centre again.
What has the traditional rulers done concerning this trend as it is happening before their very eyes?
The community leaders and traditional rulers have not done anything concerning this problem and they are aware it is happening. We are happy that the Child’s Right Act has been passed and we are seeing changing.
Did you report some of these cases to the police before the Act was passed?
We did and the police are aware of what was happening over the years but then they will claim that there was no law concerning the matter.
As do you feel about these as a father?
It is horrible because it never happened in my time.
How do they get the food they eat?
We have donors; there is a lady here, her name is Mrs. Ngozi Umemba and her husband, Humphrey helps us a lot. The Catholic Church and individuals. Another fantastic donor that has done greatly for this centre is the Church of Jesus Christ for Latter Day Saints who sank a borehole for us, constructed beds and do send us food items. Apart from them, no other church has come to our aid.
How do you take care of the medical needs?
We take them to the hospital and foot the bills but the president’s wife attends to them as she is a nurse.
The centre as it is now is not protected by proper fencing; there are bushes around, the surrounding are bare and the windows are not protected, are these kids not endangered?
They are and that is why we want people to come and help us. That is why as I reside here I have sleepless nights because I have this fear of intruders coming in and attacking the kids. We need people to come and help us and provide the necessities. Stepping Stones, a UK NGO formed by Gary Foxcroft, a Briton from
Lancaster has been helping us a lot. We want the government to take this issue seriously.
Some of the kids are in secondary schools, after they finish what will be the next step?
When they graduate and we try to unify them and their parents don’t want them back, I don’t know what else we will do.
How often do you try to unify them?
We have been doing that but most of the parents are adamant but we are optimistic that the new development will help us very well as some of these parents have started to be arrested. The government should not relent.
What joy do you derive doing this job?
As a retiree, I feel happy being a father to these kids and I do it for humanitarian purposes.
Does your pay justify what you do?
It does not.
Why are you still doing it?
I can’t do nothing more but I try to make life easier for these kids.
What is your dream for this centre?
To see the people accept these kids as normal human beings, I think if we achieve that I will feel fulfilled in my life.
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