Woman faces death penalty for witchcraft after 'casting spell on 13-year-old shopper'

A Sri Lankan woman has been arrested on suspicion of casting a spell on a 13-year-old girl on a shopping trip in Saudi Arabia. She may face the death penalty as the Middle Eastern country is known to behead convicted sorcerers. 

 Police spokesman Mesfir al-Juayed confirmed yesterday that details of the woman's arrest published in local media were correct. The daily Okaz reported that a Saudi man had complained his daughter had 'suddenly started acting in an abnormal way and that happened after she came close to the Sri Lankan woman' in a large shopping mall in the port city of Jeddah. 

 'He reported her to the security forces, asking for her arrest and the specialised units dealt with the situation swiftly and succeeded in arresting her,' Okaz said. Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally, is an absolute monarchy that has no written criminal code and where court rulings are based on judges' interpretation of Islamic Sharia law. 

 'The punishment is always beheading for anyone found guilty of witchcraft,' a Saudi lawyer and human rights activist, Waleed Abu al-Khair said. In December, Amnesty International condemned the beheading of a woman in Saudi Arabia convicted on charges of 'sorcery and witchcraft' saying it underlined the urgent need to end executions in the kingdom. Amnesty said the execution was the second of its kind last year. A Sudanese national was beheaded in the Saudi city of Medina in September after being convicted on sorcery charges, according to the London-based group.

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Father pleads guilty for blaming child of witchcraft

A 38-year-old man, Mr Michael Effiong, yesterday pleaded guilty for child stigmatization after he appeared before the Esit Eket Magistrate’s Court for torturing and accusing his 7-year-old-son of witchcraft.

Effiong was arraigned on Monday by the police after he broke reconciliation accord with his son, Benji, whom he abandoned for 3 years at the children rehabilitation centre.

The Police Prosecutor, Ukpabio Samuel told the court that the suspect was arrested following a petition by a non-governmental organization, Child Rights Rehabilitation Network.

The accused, a carpenter by profession, pleaded guilty to the charges of child witch accusation, child abandonment and abuse.

The presiding magistrate, Esther Etukudo Etukudo, adjourned the case till March23 and ordered the accused to be remanded in prison.

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Witchcraft in the Church

Emmanuel Okonjo had had enough. His email to me from Abuja said as much. “That is the last parish of that church I will join. I am now convinced the church is a cult.” What was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back for Emmanuel. The pastor came to church that Sunday morning and laid down a decree “ex cathedra.” “Anyone who speaks against our church or against our G.O. (General Overseer) is going to die.”

Emmanuel went to the pastor and challenged him after the service. “How can you say something like that?” he demanded. However, the pastor had a ready defence. “I am not the one saying it,” he insisted. “That prophecy is from the G.O. himself.”

The pastor’s logic was impeccable. The G.O. was an impregnable defence. Nobody in his right mind would dare question his judgment. If indeed it was the G.O. who said it, then it must be from God himself.

Emmanuel took the choice of least resistan-ce. If the G.O. is god, then he must resign from god’s church in order to find the one true God. So resign he did. After the blind man whose eyes Jesus open-ed had been excommunicated from the synagogue, then the Lord met him and revealed himself to him. (John 9:35-38).

So let me ask you a question. Does your pastor practice witchcraft? Has he ever implied that when he decrees a thing it is established instantaneous-ly? Has he ever instructed you to speak prophetically to your offer-ing? Has he ever told you God is going to ma-ke you a slum-dog millionaire, provided you make a few down-payments to the church? If “yes” to any of the abo-ve, then your pastor is operating in a time-honoured tradition of using witchcraft on his congregation.

Players get played

Bishop Wale Oke of Christ Life Church, Ibadan, is also the South West co-ordinator of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN). Sometime ago, PFN pastors from the South West were assembled at the Guiding Light Assembly in Lagos to elect a new executive. But there was something strange about that election; nobody knew the candidates.

At the last minute, a list was circulated with the names of certain pastors assigned to the different posts. We were then required to vote for only the people on the list.

Bishop Wale conducted this sham of an election. He suddenly declared that certain critical posts would not be by election but by selection. Then in full-flight oratory, he referred us to John 6:28-29.

In that scripture, the people ca-me to Jesus asking him what they should do to work the works of God. Jesus replied: “This is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent.” Bishop Wale then turned to us: “God says you should believe in us,” he declared triumphantly, referring not to Jesus but to him-self. “We have fasted and we have prayed and we have decided who should be the elected officers of the PFN in Lagos State.”

There was some kind of poetic justice in Bishop Wale’s manipulation of PFN pastors. We use this kind of witchcraft time-and-again on our church-members. But somehow that did not make it any more palatable when someone decided to use it on us. It was also sobering to discover that our modus operandi as pastors was actually no different from those of the Action Congress of Nigeria and the Peoples Democratic Party.

Babalawo pastors

When most people think of witchcraft, they think essentially of the hocus-pocus of “babalawos.” However, witchcraft is also a manipulative device widely used in the churches by pastors who aspire to be gods in the lives of men. Many Christians have been hypnotised by pastors. Day-in day-out, we pastors practice witchcraft on our church-members; making them submissive to our will.

In the churches of today, the fear of the pastor is the beginning of wisdom. Christians are simply scared to death of pastors. Many are required to worship us even more than God. We manipulate our congregants so effectively they believe to disobey us is to disobey God.

Illusion is every-thing. The pastor is larg-er than life. We admit no human failings. We quo-te choice-scriptures dra-matically to great effect. Every so often, we decla-re grandiloquently: “thus says the Lord.” Sooner than later, people become convinced we are imbued with supernatural pow-ers. When we tell them to jump, they jump. When we tell them to empty their wallets, they do so readily. We control their lives even to the ex-tent of determining who they marry.

God describes us succinctly: “Among my people are found wicked men; they lie in wait as one who sets snares; they set a trap; they catch men. As a cage is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become great and grown rich. They have grown fat, they are sleek; Yes, they surpass the deeds of the wicked.” (Jeremiah 5:26-28).

Unrighteous decrees

Recently, a video of Bishop David Oyedepo of Winners’ Chapel, Otta, went viral on the internet. In it, the bishop is ostensibly conducting deliverance on a group of teenage girls alleged to be witches. The girls are made to kneel submissively in front of his holiness, the bishop. However, to his annoyance, one of them has the audacity to contradict him.

The girl says defiantly: “I am not a witch. I am a witch for Jes-us. My own witch is for Jesus.” This response angers the bishop no end. He shouts at her: “You are a foul devil. Do you know whom you are talking to?” Then, consumed with rage, Bishop Oyedepo does something I would not have believed had I not seen it with my own eyes.

He gives the girl a very hard slap. He then condemns her to damnation, even though she came to him for deliverance. He barks at her: “Jesus has no witch-es. You are a devil. You are not set for deliverance and you are free to go to hell!”

Would Oyedepo have slapped the girl if she were Mike Tyson? Would he have slapped her if she were rich and powerful? Would he have slapped her if she were one of the major benefactors of Winners Chapel? I doubt it very much.

Isaiah says: “Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, who write misfortune, which they have prescribed.” (Isaiah 10:1). The bishop must be unaware of this scripture, because he boasts in another video: “I slapped a wit-ch here last year. She came back in February to apologise. She beg-ged me to forgive her. She went back to her witchcraft company and they told her: ‘Ah, if the man says you are dead, you are dead. That small thing can kill you forever.”

What conclusions are his congregants expected to draw from this boast? Bishop Oyedepo implies he is so powerful; he can kill people eternally with his tong-ue. But surely, that is not the way of Christ. When James and John asked Jesus to call down fire from heaven to destroy a Samaritan village that denied them free passage to Jerusalem, Jesus rebuked them. He said: “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” (Luke 9:55-56).

Whatever manner of spirit is behind Bishop Oyedepo’s outrage, it does not commend him as a disciple of Christ. A disciple must be careful to bridle his tong-ue. Jesus warns: “Every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemn-ed.” (Matthew 12:36-37).

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I Killed my Babies by smashing their heads on the floor and Scraping their head with broken bottle to cast out demons

A FIVE-month-old girl and her two-year-old sister were found stone dead on Thursday in Calabar, Cross River State after their mother allegedly smashed their heads on the wall in the belief that they were possed by demons.

The mother was said to have believed that the demons needed such an extreme measure to be forced to vacate the bodies of the children. The two kids did not survive the ordeal.

The incident occurred at the Ikot Enebong axis of 8 Miles, in Calabar municipality.

The name of the suckling baby was given as Fedora, while that of the two-year-old was Blessing.

The mother, who was simply identified as Mrs. Temple Peter, was said to have committed the act after putting drugs in her husband’s meal and inducing him into a deep sleep from 7am till 2.00 pm. He was effectively put out of the way.

It was alleged that she advised her husband to ‘rest’ while she prayed with the children. As the husband fell into sleep, she was busy smashing the babies’ fragile heads on the floor after successfully scraping the heads with a broken bottle.

It was after the unwholesome deed that her husband, a Rivers State-born Mr Temple Peter, woke up and saw the kids in a pool of their blood.

The Pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), which the family attends, Gabriel Ojugbo, told us on Saturday that the butchered bodies of the two children had been deposited in the morgue of the General Hospital, Calabar.

Ojogbo, of the Lifeline Assembly, a parish of the RCCG, said that it was about 2.30pm that the children’s father rushed to him, panting, to disclose that the children had been killed by their mother.

His words: “I rushed to their apartment and what I saw was as if I was dreaming. The baby’s head was scraped, most probably with a bottle. The sitting room was messy with blood stains everywhere.”

The cleric continued: “I met her on top of the two-year-old girl with her full weight, shaking the child terribly and with an open Bible close to the girl’s head. By the time I shove her aside, the girl was stone dead.

“I confronted her and she said that she was trying to cast away demons from the children because any time she looked at them, she was seeing an old man in their eyes. She accused the husband of not being sensitive to the things of the spirit”.

Further investigations revealed that the bottle that must have been used to scrape baby Fedora’s head was also used by the wife to put marks around Peter’s head while he was unconscious in his bedroom.

Pastor Ojugbo believed that the mark was to render Peter incapable of taking any action instantly.

Meanwhile, Peter is being detained at the Federal Housing Police station, but an impeccable Police source who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the man was in protective custody.

He added that investigations into the murder was on-going.

The State Police Public Relations officer (PPRO, Hogan Bassey confirmed the report.

Another source said that even in Police custody, the man was screaming that he ed his wife by his side.

The woman was said to have fled the house, but she was caught along the Eta Agbor Road, where she was behaving like a mentally retarded person.

As at press time, she was said to be receiving treatment at the Federal Psychiatric hospital, Calabar. Efforts to speak with her or her husband proved abortive.

Our correspondent who visited the hospital could not get access to the accused as the Chief Medical Director of the hospital was not available to grant permission.

Some neighbours said that the woman had always be reclusive.

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VICTORIA AND THE NIGHTMARE OF AKWA IBOM WITCH CHILDREN

My heart bleeds as I read the story of Victoria. How her own parents subjected her to midnight torture; when everywhere has been calmed, waking her up at night and burning her with candle to extract confession. This time not Victoria Climbe, but Victoria Akwa-Ibom. We reject our own for others to pick and make good use of as if our own ignorance is incurable. The story of Akwa Ibom Child Witch Story is an endless one of the levity with which the government subjected it to.

In Akwa Ibom State, it is very terrible situation while our government tries a lot to make a window dressing as if nothing bad is going on; and the very the church that causes this whole problem is trying to blame humanists and atheist groups for the very problem that they initiated in 1999, brainwashing people with films such as "END OF THE WICKED," "ESCAPE ROOT" and "The COVEN" And books like ''The Seat of Satan Exposed'' ''UNVEILING THE MYSTERY OF WITCHCRAFT'' written by Apostle Helen Ukpabio. The latter states, in part: “If a child under the age of two screams in the night, cries and is always feverish with deteriorating health he or she is a servant of Satan.” This is however a common phenomenon in the rustic Nigerian communities where malaria epidemic is nothing to write home about and given the avalanche of mosquitoes from pot holes, stench-emitting blocked gullies and garbage heaps

Years back, we witnessed how aged people were accused of witchcraft, causing unheard-of atrocity were abused, neglected or killed openly, (Remember Akpan Ekwong who led the killings of people in the early eighties?); no child was ever accused of being a witch. But after such films, music and pulpit theology laced with fear of witchcraft and how children have taken over the witch world, the fate of Akwa Ibom child changed for the worst. In every 2 children accused of witchcraft in Nigeria 1 is from Akwa Ibom. Outside Nigeria, in every 4 children accused of witchcraft, 1 is from Akwa Ibom State. But we continue to downplay on the magnitude of this problem and castigate those who dare to work or campaign to reverse this ugly and dangerous trend. Thank God that this very story is not written by an Akwa Ibom person otherwise they would have referred it to blackmailing Akwa Ibom State government at the detriment of child

As I write this piece, inside my mind, I frown at Aniekan Umanah, the present Akwa Ibom State Information Commissioner, for lying to the world that no child has ever being harmed or hurt on account of witchcraft while children continue to face death penalty in churches and their family homes. As we walk the streets daily we see more and more children on the Street because the misinforming, sorry LIAR Commissioner of Orientation and Information has disoriented the people and not help to enlighten his society. I frown at him for not educating the people about the wicked brainwash of these vile and renegade churches.

Some journalists who had reported about the true child witch story to expose the atrocity of these churches and the parents, have been paid by Aniekan Umanah and the Liberty Gospel Church to write a reverse story. With time, I believe we will work with some human right lawyers to face his paid journalists for the monumental deceit. All is not yet Uhuru for them. Let them get paid and tell lies about the fate of children of Akwa Ibom origin. But I must strongly commend some of the journalists and right groups who stood their ground and refused to be paid with blood money to sacrifice our children. Those who see the truth and tell it the way it is; those who have refused to be bought to tell lies. I condemn in the strongest possible terms the News Watch magazine and The News for misleading the public with their paid job to belch cannon of lies about the right groups that work to rescue and protect these vulnerable children. Those who are here knows the truth and cannot be deceived

As I write now, one child is facing jungle justice out there for no crime he or she has committed. Her only crime is that she was born to an Akwa Ibom person, or perhaps in a poor family. The Akwa Ibom Child Fate is that of witch branding, stigmatisation, torture, abandonment, suffocation, trafficking, rituals and DEATH. The government has not done anything to enlighten the folk and religious groups on the superstitious belief of child witchcraft simply because most government officials believe that those children deserve such fate since they are guilty as charged. They pay much attention to buy the media to tell the world that those who campaign for stoppage of child stigmatization; torture and killing are doing so for pecuniary reason without offering an alternative.

Thank goodness, the federal government of Nigeria through Dr Idris Kuta, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development recently issued a statement acknowledging child witch palaver and made a strong condemnation on those stigmatised and torture children in the name of witchcraft.

I just read in media how the governor of Akwa Ibom State, Chief Godswill Akpabio is working with the state House of Assembly to gag the media with headlines such as “Gov Akpabio’s Akwa Ibom Assembly arrogating Power to Itself to Gag Journalists." “Akwa Ibom Govt moves to gag media over critical reporting of Governor Akpabio”

While I am yet to come to term with this, I will no doubt encourage government to pay attention to the myriads of problem that bedevilled the fate of stigmatised children and do more to curb the menace instead of wasting time establishing repulsive laws that will attract more criticism and cynicism. I agree that the law has been passed since 2008, but how many pastors or parents have been prosecuted. Not a single one! Rather we eulogise them and expect every body to do same. Unfortunate! Apart from the mere arrest and bail-out no one has ever face prosecution. Those who report such pastors to the government or its agency, risk being gunned after, blackmailed, even by same government agents with tacit support from the executive government. Akpabio and his government agents have been very infamous in launching vicious and calumnious attack on the right groups backed up by organisation such as Liberty Gospel Church that invented the child witch imbroglio and indeed phenomenon in Nigeria.

The Story of Victoria from Akwa Ibom State whose parents work in INEC and live in Karu, Abuja tells you that Akwa Ibom Child is not save any where in the world with brainwash launch by the Christian fanatical groups and government inaction or lack of intervention. Victoria's story reminds me of the Good Samaritan who wasn’t a Christian but stopped to rescue the dying Christ. Barrister Aja N. Aja who rescued Victoria is not from Akwa Ibom and may not be a Christian but dovetailed to help Victoria who is an Akwa Ibom Child.

Apart from the Child’s Right and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN) whose, founder (Sam Itauma) and members are Christians all other right groups that are today campaigning for the end to Child stigmatisation are not Christian by inclination or concept but they work tirelessly to save the lives of children who are manacled in churches and starved to death in the name of exorcism and the streets. So what the fusses about atheist and humanist groups when Christian groups have failed us? What the fuss when churches have failed us; when pastors, evangelist, Apostles, Bishop, Prophets have failed us?

I recently attended the attended a UNICEF advocacy meeting here in Akwa Ibom, where a government representative stood up and argued that some of the accused children might be witches. If a government official made such remarks in a high profile advocacy meeting like that, what does one expect how such children will be treated by the an ordinary person?

Such helpless children continue to dot the streets, taking refuge in abandoned structures and becoming prey to human traffickers and ritual killers. What could have happed to all these children if these groups did not step up campaigns to protect them? Reporting such abuse, torture or killing of children on the media is seen as fighting the government. The Akwa Ibom government continues to flaunt its bloated ego sweeping such cruelty on children under the carpet with the archaic cliché “Akwa Ibom Ado Ok”. Meaning Akwa Ibom is Ok! And now, it is “the Uncommon Transformation!” But whatever transformation that may have set in, while the human trafficking business in Nigeria or Africa continues to boom because the syndicates know Akwa Ibom State is a repository of abandoned children only compared to Nepal as a whole, makes such transformation a lip-service.

Truly if the Channel News TV that aired Victoria’s story was in Akwa Ibom, it would not have gone unscathed. The TV anchorman would have been under crucible investigation now by the government security agents. No doubt Governor Akpabio is working round the clock to gag the press using the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly as a puppet, defying the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill that was passed into law by the federal government of Nigeria.

While appreciating the fact that state government had enacted the child protection law, I bemoan bitterly as the implementation still remains a mirage. How many of these pastors or parent have so far been prosecuted, apart from the arrest and bail? One strong question that refuses to depart the lips of many is: What would have happened to the thousands of children stigmatised children if the civil society and right groups had taking to sitting on the fence? Clearly, with about 50 thousands churches in Nigeria, only one church is leading a campaign against witch hunting; with zero tolerance to witchcraft belief. This is Solid Rock Kingdom Church with Apostle John Okoriko. Can other churches and pastors borrow a leaf here?

To this end, I wish to dole out my Diadem of Honour to the right groups and civil society organizations with the following acronyms for working hard to save the witch children of Nigeria: CRARN, UNICEF, NAPTIP, SSN, YHN, CEHRD NHM and indeed the initiator of Anti Child Witch-Hunt Campaign Mr. Sam Itauma for donating time, resources and love for the ostracized children right to life.

Peters writes from Uyo, Akwa Ibom State

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POLICE NABS CHILD-WITCH SELLER IN AKWA IBOM STATE.

A 28 year old woman (name withheld) has been arrested by a special police detective team in Eket for attempting to sell a seven year old boy. A police source said in Eket.

The youngster who is said to be her step-son was, however, living with his biological mother until the father requested to take full responsibility of him. Apparently angered by the child’s arrival, the step-mother contracted a pastor to screen the little boy to ascertain if he was possessed with witchcraft spell or not. On confirmation that the boy was possessed, he was reportedly disappeared from the house.

A dependable source said lady who operates a local Hotel called Prince Udoette Hotel in Ikot Idung Offiong community had arranged with a Port-Harcourt based child trafficking syndicate to pick the boy in a location along Uqua Road, in heart of Eket, but the late arrival of the spoiled the show, as the detectives swooped the scene and arrested the lady on a tip-off.

The community source did not confirm whether the hotel was used as a conduit for the sales of other children; but stressed that she’s been notorious for dealing with suspicious elements coming to the community.

She confessed to the police that she was scared based on the prophet’s instruction that the boy will infect her children with his magical power. When the man of God told me that he will transfer the spell to my children, or kill them, I was really afraid…” she said.

The a police inspector in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), who did not want his name mentioned said that sales of children of Akwa Ibom origin to syndicates coming from Aba and Port-Harcourt was a common phenomenon. “They have a robust network, which keeps buying more and more children here in the State.

It depends on the s*x, the age of the child and the negotiation. A male child is said to be sold between N150, 000 to N170, 000 a female is between N130, 000 to N50, 000. But it varies on age.” The officer said. “Our team is monitoring them… We will get them all,” he added.

But the coordinator of a human right group, Freedom Impact International (FII), Mr Jackson Bas, though commended the police for rescuing the child; he expressed scepticism over the willingness of the police to prosecute the culprit.

“This is not the first time they have arrested child traffickers. They have been doing so before; we know about this. How many of them have been taken to court. Police will keep them in the cell till their men will come and bail them out with money they called bond…” Bas noted.

He appealed to the government not to turn a blind eye to the torture and killing of children and elderly people who are accused of practicing witchcraft or sorcery.

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Man Accused Of Witchcraft Hacked To Death By Relatives

An eyewitness, who preferred anonymity, said the deceased was riding on a motorcycle when he saw some men at Oyoku Ubighi, drinking and eating dog meat at a joint.

The eyewitness explained that the men jumped inside a vehicle immediately they sighted him and chased the deceased.

He said, “We saw Mfon riding on a motorcycle and almost all the men that were drinking left immediately to close him. They followed him and when they got to a desolate area, hit him with their vehicle.

“As he tried to get up and run, people around the area, who thought it was an accident, rushed to the scene to rescue him.

“But no fewer than five persons got out of the vehicle, with axes and cutlasses and hacked the deceased. They shot into the air sporadically to scare the crowd, and took the body away to an unknown destination.”

Also, a bicycle rider, who also craved anonymity, corroborated the eyewitness' account.

He added that as he was running to the scene to rescue the deceased, he saw some men coming out of a white Volvo car with no number plate.

He said, “When I saw them, I was afraid and quickly retreated. In the process of killing Mfon, I heard one of them say, 'You use your witchcraft power to kill my mother. I warned you if the woman died, you too would die. And let us see if your witchcraft will be able to save you.'

“I held my breath. When they finished cutting the deceased up, they took the body away, and nobody could trace them anymore.”

The wife of the deceased, Ikwo, said her husband was going to ask Etim how far he had gone with the aluminium pulpit he was making for the church.

She said from what she learnt, when her husband was returning home around 5pm at Mbokpu Oyoima, a vehicle was trailing him but he didn't notice it.

She said she learnt her husband was killed at a desolate area, opposite a church at Oyoku Ibighi, in Urue Offong/Oruko LGA.

She said her husband had abandoned home to live with friends following repeated threat messages by his relations.

She said, “All along they had been sending threat messages to the extent that a Deacon in a church, summoned my husband and advised him to avoid some of his relations because of the threats.

“My husband had on two occasions been mercilessly beaten by his own people and some cult men in the village. When I reported the matter to the police who came to my husband's rescue, his relations blamed me and fined me one she-goat and 10 bottles of locally-made gin for insulting them by calling the police.

“They blamed my husband for the sickness of her sister and said if the woman should die, my husband would also be killed. And so, they carried out their threat.”

Ikwo said when she reported the matter to the police in the area, they asked what she expected them to do after the man had been killed.

When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Onyekaozuru Orji, said the police were unaware of the incident but would do everything within their constitutional power to bring all the culprits to book.

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