The stigmatization and abuse of children as witches in the Niger Delta is no longer news. It has put some states, particularly Akwa Ibom, in the eye of a media storm. But there is a rather dirty war featuring death threats, damaging allegations and counter allegations raging among key players in this saga. Sunday Trust takes a closer look.
A phone rings at 10 in the night. Some men have discovered a girl, just over a year old, bound hands and legs to an anthill in Uqua, Esik-Ekit in Akwa Ibom State. The men are afraid to approach so they call Sam Itauma on the phone and wait. When he came, he unbound the girl and took her for treatment at a centre he runs for children branded as witches in Eket.
The little girl was given the name Promise by the other children at the centre, where she has now been living for over a year. Efforts to locate her parents have failed and no one has come to claim her. But now, little Promise might just have to look for a new home because her feature is in the balance yet again.
Sam Itauma has been running the Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network CRARN since 2003 to cater for the hundreds of abandoned children who have been branded as witches or wizards. Initially, he was running a school for the less privilege but with increasing cases of “child witches” he went into advocacy against the practices and has now ended up caring for some 200 children or more.
Apart from the challenges of running the centre where these children are housed and schooled, he now has to contend with death threats and allegations of fraud and child trafficking brought against him by some powerful forces. He also fears the Akwa Ibom State Government may close down the centre.
The state has been in the eye of the global media for some time now largely due to the advocacy work of CRARN and Stepping Stone Nigeria (SSN), both NGOs. They have been drawing attention to the plight of the children and the notorious practices that have claimed many lives in the Niger Delta region. It is the media coverage that has seriously vexed some people, enough to threaten the life of Sam Itauma, as he claims.
Beliefs in the practices of witch craft are widespread. In countries like Angola and Benin Republic, there are serious cases of stigmatization and torture of children as witches. In Nigeria, the practice is widespread and some places in Southern Kaduna and Nasarawa Eggon are infamous for it. It is also widespread in the South-South region but recent media coverage has made Akwa Ibom State the focal point, much to the displeasure of the state Government.
Recently, Governor Godswill Akpabio was on CNN to say that reports of stigmatization and abuse of children as witches and wizards are grossly exaggerated and said it is only a “very, very minimal problem”. But then he came back and set up a five-man commission of inquiry led by Honourable Justice Godwin Abraham to investigate the issues.
The commission is coming in the midst of a potentially fatal tussle between a coalition of NGOs and child right activists on one hand, and a very powerful church believed to have encouraged the stigmatization and abuse of children as witches in the first place on the other. The combatants are fighting dirty. Death threats, assaults and damaging accusations and counter accusations having been flying in all directions. The children are caught in the middle.
The origins
The situation in Akwa Ibom is intriguing. The rampant cases of child abuse based on allegations of witchcraft are driven, not by fetish beliefs, but by the church. But unlike the Inquisitions in Europe led by the Catholic Church, this is supposedly being led by the Pentecostal churches.
One church in particular, Liberty Gospel Church, led by firebrand preacher, Helen Ukpabio, has come under heavy criticism globally for its supposed role in the development. The church has some 250 branches locally and internationally and about a quarter million members, according to estimates by a church elder, Anthony Effiong at the commission’s hearing recently in Uyo.
Leader of the church, the self-styled Lady Apostle Helen Ukpabio, has been preaching against witchcraft and has been carrying out special “deliverance crusades”, where she casts out demons, witchcraft and “mami wata” spirits, according to Mr. Effiong.
She has written many books, among which is “Unveiling the Mysteries of Witchcraft”. In that book she writes some traits by which witches and wizards can be recognised among children “from zero to 18 years”. Some of the features she mentions in chapter eight of the book (P76) are bedwetting, screaming or crying at nights, running a high temperature and being stubborn among others. This book is widely circulated among church members and Mr. Effiongs admits they “use it for evangelism.”
But more damaging perhaps was a film “End of the Wicked” produced by her church’s outfit, Liberty Films. The 1999 Nollywood home video featuring a star cast of Hilda Dokubo, Ramsey Nuoah, Alex Usifo among others, including Helen Ukpabio herself, was directed by Teco Benson. The film depicts children as witches and wizards causing misfortunes and deaths in their families.
Many people believe that this, in no small measure, exponentially increased the perception of children as witches and the subsequent abuses that have followed.
But that is not the case, Elder Effiong, who is proud to have played a role in the film, told the commission. “The storyline has nothing to do with branding children as witches,” he says, having tendered a copy of the movie as evidence and adds that the message is the opposite of what is being said. “The message propagates and promotes child welfare,” he says.
Outside the hall where the commission sits, Emmanuel, a young student of Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic, is engaged in a heated debate with some gentlemen over the issue. His contention is that his state has been put in bad light by all the publicity generated by the NGOs. When I asked him if he believed in witchcraft, he said, “Of course” and when asked what informed the belief, he said. “When I was young, I watched this film, ‘End of the Wicked’ and saw how witches are flying in the night and how they are behaving. That showed me what witches can do,” he says.
Elder Anthony however insists that Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries, the umbrella body of the 250 Liberty churches and its numerous arms (including the film and books productions units) has always been committed to child welfare. He tendered another film, “The Children are Angry” to demonstrate his organisation’s commitment to child welfare. “All these are the efforts made by the ministry to promote child welfare. So when people come and say we are murdering children, it’s strange,” he says.
Death threats and death merchants
Sam Itauma, founder of CRARN is in hiding and his SSN partner, Gary Foxtrot has returned to his native England amidst security concerns.
“I am a Nigerian; I can’t run away from Nigeria. If they want to kill me let them kill me in Nigeria,” Itauma says. He adds that there have already been several attempts on his life by sympathisers of Helen Ukpabio.
“Sometimes gunmen will come to my house, come to the centre looking for me,” he says. He also adds that he has been chased in a car but managed to escape because of his superior knowledge of the nooks and crannies of Eket.
Helen Ukpabio was said not to be in the country when I visited the state but her counsel, Barrister Victor Ukutt speaking on her behalf denied trying to have him killed and claims instead to be the victim.
“He is even the one who is trying to assassinate my client. They [sympathisers of CRARN and SSN] have written letters to my client, on the basis of which we invited the police to offer her protection. Someone from Germany told us that these letters should not be taken lightly because he has reliable information that they have actually planned to kill her. In one they said, ‘I will not leave this world until I have killed you’ another one said, Helen Ukpabio, bet me, any time I see you, your life is in my hand,’” he says.
The passions these issues have generated on both sides are intense. Nigerians are deeply religious and Christianity is a big deal in Akwa Ibom. There are several churches on practically every street turn, both Catholic and Pentecostal, huge billboards advertising one crusade or the other compete for space with those of solidarity with the hugely popular Governor Godswill Akpabio. Travelling between Uyo and Eket, the second largest town in the state, our driver entertains us with an album of Bob Marley songs, only the lyrics have been changed by a local artiste to bear the gospel. It seemed a popular choice with my fellow travellers as are all other gospel songs here.
The traditional belief in witchcraft has been echoed in The Bible and some priests have taken it quite literarily. The roles of traditional medicine men and diviners have now been taken over by pastors who claim to carry out exorcism and “deliverance.”
“You know, all these people, they don’t want to be like native doctors, and because the church has taken over...” the cabby who drove me from the airport said and shrugged off the remainder of his sentence.
Poverty has also played a major role in this drama. Some of the new generation churches have focused on preaching financial success. Where the success or marriage (for the desperately single) fails to happen, they look for someone or something to blame. Usually enemies, believed to be using supernatural means to prevent success, bear the brunt.
The Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Information, Mr Aniekan Umanah has made this interesting observation: “You may also understand that no child of the wealthy will be called a witch, it must be the children of the very poor. So you can see the contradiction there. It is just the illiteracy level and also, when people confuse people just to defraud them or for pecuniary interest to attract funding from various people or organisations, they tend to over blow the situation and make it larger than life.”
Fraud allegations
The commissioner is already hinting at allegations of fraud against the NGOs. He, too, like the governor, does not deny the problem, he just feels they have been exaggerated to “paint Akwa Ibom with a tar brush” and to defraud donors.
“They have gone all over the world making money. We don’t even know if some of the videos and images they used were brought from Somalia. We are also aware that the so called bishop they used in the video has made a public confession that they said they were going to pay him money to say the things he said,” he says passionately. He was referring to a documentary aired internationally that has caused an outpour of reactions from across the world. Some 200 students from a college in Australia, having watched it, wrote letters of denunciation to Helen Ukpabio.
Her sympathisers, however, have latched on to the allegations of fraud against the NGOs. They have gone a step further to add child trafficking to the mix. Victor Ukutt says a previous police raid at CRARN Children Centre, Eket resulted in the confiscation of a computer that showed evidence of child trafficking on the part of the NGO. The evidence, he says, are some correspondences with a party in Lagos stating the prices for children based on gender and age.
These allegations could not be substantiated by the police as at the time of going to press. When I visited the state, the Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Onyeka Orji was busy with a visiting Assistant Inspector General of Police and could not make himself available for an interview. Days later, on the phone, he said he needed to get the file for the case and promised to get back to me. He never did, neither did he respond to further calls and a text message.
The liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries in a memorandum submitted before the commission of inquiry in Uyo alleged that CRARN and SSN have got some seven billion pounds from donations worldwide but the organisations could not account for the monies. Challenged by Barrister James Ibor of CRARN and SSN to produce evidence to this claim, church elder Anthony Effiong, also a legal practitioner, could not substantiate his claims and refers the commission instead to the Charity Commission of England and Wales.
Barrister Ukutt, however, insists that the NGOs are principally fraudulent; alleging that at a point there was a serious dispute between Itauma and Gary Foxtrot of SSN over sharing the loot. Asked if he has any evidence to back this claim he says: “In fact, it is Barrister Ben Ndedde who had to draw up an agreement for them on how to be sharing money, because he (Foxtrot) would collect money and would not let them know. Yes Barrister Ben Ndedde is alive, go there and ask him.”
Ben Ndedde is a lawyer who had at a time volunteered his services for the NGOs. His chamber is in Eket. As I had already spent the night there and had just returned to Uyo that morning, I spoke to Ndedde on the phone.
“That is not true,” he says.
When I asked him why Ukutt seemed so sure about his allegation and even urged me to seek confirmation he says, “I think it’s because they (Ukpabio’s supporters) are losing strength and a drowning man will grab at straws.”
Sam Itauma has always denied the allegations of fraud and child trafficking. He insist Ukpabio’s cronies are trying desperately to tarnish his image as well as that of Mr. Foxtrot and their respective organisations in order to discredit the works they have been doing for the children.
“Of recent, government utterances about CRARN, about those working for CRARN, about those taking care of these children are negative, it’s all about blackmail, it’s reducing us to ashes. How can you say an NGO is fraudulent when you have not investigated the NGO? How can you say an NGO is into child trafficking when you have not investigated the NGO? And this is an NGO that is preventing trafficking in children,” he says.
“If you come with records that we are fraudulent, I will resign but as long as there is no proof, I will continue to work for the welfare of the children that have been branded as witches. My life could be on the line but it doesn’t bug me,” he says.
Cracks in the wall
There is no denying that relations between the NGOs and the government in the state have gone sour. The reasons are obvious. Travelling around Akwa Ibom, government presence is seen everywhere. Infrastructures in the state have been upgraded and new ones are being put in place. The government is offering free and compulsory education for pupils. Governor Godswill Akpabio obviously enjoys plenty goodwill from the average man on the street. He even visited the CRARN centre in Eket sometime back and donated N10m for the children’s upkeep and promulgated the Child Rights Law to counter and prevent abuse.
But since the CNN broadcast of a documentary focusing on the abuse of children as witches in the state, the government and people feel they are being portrayed in bad light in the international press by the NGOs.
“I have only one problem with SSN and CRARN and my problem is that they should stop making documentaries and selling [it] in the world and making money and using the name of Akwa Ibom State and the children of Akwa Ibom. That is my only grouse with them,” commissioner Umanah says.
But Sam Itauma feels that Mr. Umanah himself is a key factor in damaging relations between the NGOs and the governor because of his strong relationship with the Liberty Church.
Umanah insists he is not a member of the church and has no ties with it or its founder, Helen Ukpabio. Left to him, it is the NGOs that are doing damage to the children. “In fact, they are the ones stigmatizing the children of Akwa Ibom state and stigmatizing us. We will not allow them to stigmatize us.”
He, however, would not mind the work of the NGOs, provided they don’t create an image problem for his state. “I’m not saying they shouldn’t do their work but they should stop painting this state black, they should stop portraying us as barbaric people.”
The commission
In the plush hall of the Civil Service Commission at the Idongesit Nkanga Secretariat, the five bespectacled wise persons of the commission of inquiry (four gentlemen and a lady) scrutinize the many memorandums submitted by various individuals and groups on the child witches saga and listen to dozens of witnesses.
At the end of their assignment, they are expected to forward a report to the state government and make recommendations on what needs to be done to bring an end to the situation.
Nigerian administrators are very fond of commissions; they present an avenue for people to air their views on issues, but hundreds of commissions’ reports and recommendations are lying unattended in various offices in the country.
But Sam Itauma still believes something positive will come out of this. Already, he says, parents are responding to the media coverage generated by the commission and are coming to the centre to reclaim their children.
“This commission is also helping because the news and the investigations of the commission going on is making parents realise that government is into the business of protecting children. It’s a good measure. We have so far had the highest number of reconciliations without us going out there to invite parents,” he says
But beyond the opulent, velvety curtains of the hall, the likes of little Promise, stigmatized and abandoned even before she knew her birth name, wonder what promise their future holds as this dirty war is fought out.
Sam Itauma is determined to see out the fight though. “I have always said that the branding of children as witches, the torturing of children as witches and killing of children as witches may not come to an end unless there is a sacrifice and if that is the case, I am here to offer myself as a sacrificial lamb, provided it is done officially,” he says.
No comments:
Post a Comment