Nairaland imagine my anger to wake up this early morning and see in the UK Metro that Nigerians are openly maltreating and killing innocent children in Akwa ibom just because some so called pastors and men of God have said they were witches. Fine we hear cases of the woman who was flying abroad to kill her son who got stuck on a lighting pole, or other such cases of the woman hu sewed up her child’s mouth because she always told lies and other with craft stories.

One day while beign approached by these so called nspcc/ red cross people I happened to mention I was Nigerian and the guy was quick to say he respects us we are wealthy live very extra vagant lives however we are almost the only country that are too proud to accept voluntary help from the outside world. But for this to become so world wide that its making the papers and a documentary is to be shown on air tonight on channel four this must be really serious? Frankly I can’t understand how this even got so big.
I was surprised to find out that many of these children have been picked by the charity aid workers and the news has become worldwide!! That no my point though.

What is happening are we all still this Barbaric?
Is this true? I mean I'm not saying I DNT KNOW these things happen but Is it as bad as it is beign portrayed? (u know all dese oyimbos can blow things way out of proportion)
Any names of these so called men of God? Some ‘lost ones’ here really need to know.

I noticed this hasn’t become a topic yet so please Seun help out. It is cruel and unheard of… naraland ohh the shame I feel today, oh The shame.

What is your take on this please? And what do you know? see links below.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/dec/09/tracymcveigh.theobserver
http://www.becomingdc.org/get-involved/witchchildren/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/oct/22/channel4-television

Did anyone see the documentary yesterday night on chANNEL FOUR??

oh my my!!!

i saw it y'terday!!

it waz so

I saw it too, it was gory! Didn't know things like that still happened in Nigeria and those so called men of God should be ashamed of themselves. If they really are so powerful men of God, no demon should have the effrontery to enter into their churches. And in any case, there was no where in the bible that Jesus tortured people who were possessed before the evil spirit came out of them.

Shame on our government for fostering poverty and hopelessness such that parents and communities can be so gullible where their children are concerned (even more shocked at the allegation against 3 month baby)
Shame on the governor for pretending not to know until foreigners had to tell him; his children’s’ affairs commissioner should be held to account
Shame on the police for not doing anything
Shame on lying pastors that seem to see the witchcraft and wizardry in poor people’s children and not the rich or their own
Shame on all of us Nigerians that a foreigner had to build a refuge for the children

I commend the governor for signing the children’s rights act into law in the state. Hopefully the police will do their bit so we can rid ourselves of these false prophets.

I am shocked that this news is coming out through the foreign media, i have not come across this story in our local news media what are our own journalist doing?? what is our Goverment doing? what is the Police doing and most importantly what is the body of christ in Nigeria doing. This is a challenge to all those who profess christianity in Nigeria. I feel really pained as a christian that christianity is being so badly abused and brutalized by these evil doers.

its unbeleivable, i remeber reading the paper and thinking whih country is this again until i saw it was act nigeria!!!!!!
apparantlythese people are beign gingered up by helen ukpabios films!! we really need to educate them. i mean if shes such an idol like she claimed to be in the interview she knows she can help by taking a trip there and putting thigs staright, letting them know the message and tell them not to get it twisted she of all people knows that witch craft is not the only way to teach christianity . how bout the love, how bout the compassion how bout just the simple love you neighbour as yourself at least if theres anyone theyll listen to its her! i mean athree inch nail into a girls head imagine that so called pastor saying one of the witch girls serves him in hes room so shes not a witch in that aspect abi?

Sadly, the big time wizards and witches are spared from this inhumane treatment, while they are practising their heinous activities in the covens, while these kids are treated mercilessly. Lets rise up and defend them!

There are no "real" witches and wizards anywhere.
(If there were, then it means this kids could be witches too)

Ndipe:

Sadly, the big time wizards and witches are spared from this inhumane treatment, while they are practising their heinous activities in the covens, while these kids are treated mercilessly. Lets rise up and defend them!

Now you are talking sense. Majority of them are in the UK.

Why is any one surprise? It is axiomatic that where the bible reigns supreme barbarism is round the corner. I am not surprised in the least about this. I had predicted this many years ago, and it will not be long before most of Africa is afflicted by such savagery since Christian fundamentalism is sweeping thru the continent.

while we are all quick to blame everybody but ourselves, i think its time we looked inwards and asked ourselves when was the last time we as nigerians ever volunteered to help the aged and kids out in nigeria?

how come we as diasporans were all conviniently blind to all thats happening with the kids untill a 29 YEAR OLD ENGLISHMAN who has never lived in nigeria but took it upon himself to step up and be counted, how many of us live in the same country(uk) and have never though about doing that for kids who might well be our own bro s and sisters or children,

we might blame the pastors,the government,channe4,the system but seeing as no one is blaming each and everyone of us,i thought ill chip this in so as to make the thread balanced, since the programme was shown on channel4 dont be suprised none of us nigerians have lifted a hand to help but these same white people would have called the station up to see about helping out

before some ppl come here saying i am raming my opinions down the throat of everyone,this is A PERSONAL OPINION and just the way i feel,and i believe we should use this as a wake up call and a catalyst to start getting involved and helping out any way we can, these children we saw in the programme are still there in these villages, lets look for the contacts to see about maybe taking charge of their edcation,feeding ,donations e.t.c enough of nairaland debatexxthanks and will appreciate anyone that got the charity name on the programme to post on here pls

@ lucabrasi.
YES who has volunteered? thats a good question but how would we know? what is the news for if not to let everyonw know what is going on in the country? ive lived in Ngireia for 16 years of my life and had no idea about this until i came to the UK it is horrible, If we never knew how were we to help? dont you think its really wierd that its made th headlines outside nigeria but its not even in the highlights of the news in NIGERIA?? a foreigner had to come in and make a documentary for us!!!

Seun:

There are no "real" witches and wizards anywhere. 
(If there were, then it means this kids could be witches too)

so can u define the type of witches and wizards we have the?

the bible encourages people to kill witches and wizrads, they are just doing what the bible tells them to do. . . . . .

@ mazaje yeh the old testament!
and how do they know they are witches? because they have one loss in thier family? because they are poor? because someone diddnt work hard and therefore has no money? oh pls.

waterworks:

@ mazaje yeh the old testament!
and how do they know they are witches? because they have one loss in their family? because they are poor? because someone diddnt work hard and therefore has no money? oh please.

ask the bible what constitute witch craft. . . . .

@waterworks
exactly what I'm trying to say,imagine in the whole of the western world,are we really to believe there is no one from akwa ibom or places close to that area?of course there are but they intentionally closed their eyes to whats going on, what we do especially the guys when we go home for holidays is to show off as the "london boy" or "yankee guy" spending foolishly,and dashing out clothes n shoes to lazy hangers on
if you ask me i personally think,we as individuals need to do the little we can for a change rather than passing the buck to the next person, its the goverbment,its the white people,its the governor,its the church,its christianity e.t.c
moreover just look at achaic and barbaric statements being made by ignorant nigerians like mazaje in this day and age, how can you advocate for the killing of witches and wizards?what are the conclusive and failsafe proof that someone is a witch or wizard??
a man on low wages in a zero welfare country like nigeria,gives birth to 8 kids and couldnt cope with taking care of the family,rather than coming out to ask for help,blames it on the most vulnerable, have you noticed that so called witches are always the vulnerable in our society?
children and old women
the facebook group of stepping stones, the charity taking care of the alledged child witches, pls endeavour to go there and register your presence in cash and kind
http://www..php?ref=sb#/group.php?gid=9476440119

I culled this from the internet

http://naijablog/2007/12/child-witches-of-akwa-ibom.html

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/index.php/content/view/10710/55

I just ask this question, a 5 year old boy/girl is branded a witch, ok, even if it is true, who initiated them into the coven world of witches? Or did they just wake up and become a 'witch'. Ignorance will kill some of our people, let them prosecute those big ogas and madams who are big time members of this heinous organizations.

these guys will not be procecuted while they are involved in cult et ela okija chrine and many many

Another link for videos on this topic http://saharareporters.com/African%20Witch%20Children.php

Let's just send what we can to Stepping Stones, and cover our eyes with shame. http://www.steppingstonesnigeria.org/node/18.
They're doing their best but their resources are limited.

mazaje:

the bible encourages people to kill witches and wizrads, they are just doing what the bible tells them to do. . . . . .

That's it.

Don't know why everyone is surprised.

@mazaje,bloodshed
typical, pls lets focus on issues and stop blaming everyone but ourselves we r always quick to blame the government,blame the christians or muslims as the case may be,blame everyone but ourselves, the 29 yrs old englishman that came all the way from britain to a continent he has avbsolutely no ties with and put himself in arms way to highlight our own problems didnt start apportioning blames but stepped up to do something, if blaming is all you can do then you r not really helping are you?

lucabrasi:

@mazaje,bloodshed
typical, please lets focus on issues and stop blaming everyone but ourselves we r always quick to blame the government,blame the christians or muslims as the case may be,blame everyone but ourselves, the 29 years old englishman that came all the way from britain to a continent he has avbsolutely no ties with and put himself in arms way to highlight our own problems didnt start apportioning blames but stepped up to do something, if blaming is all you can do then you r not really helping are you?

OH SHUT UP!!

Then who else is to blame for this?

Why should we blame ''ourselves''? We had nothing to do with it.

Its only logical to blame those Pastors and that awful book you consider the ''word of God''.

@bloodshed
typical black man responce, lol so will intelligently countering your argument make you feel worse or actually shutting my gob while you say the wrong things to make yourself feel happy/intelligent?
who else is to blame?well seeing as you asked ill tell you WE NIGERIANS BOTH HOME AND ABROAD ARE TO BLAME!!
most english men/women dont believe in GOD to start with yet,that guy and his crew didnt let that stand in the way of helping children in some far off african/nigerian state, it would have been easy for him to blame the africans and their corrupt government, after all he has no ties with africa and his own people are doing ok in britain,yet he highlighted the problems and publicised it to the world.

we should blame ourselves because it is our country,our state,our local government,village e.t.c even if we didnt know whats happening there,the fact that it has been brought to our attention is enough to galvanise each and everyone of us irrespective of our tribal affiliations to do something either in cash or kind,instead we r passing the baton of blame to the religious leaders,government e.t.c what exactly will that solve?ignoring the problem is more or less the same thing as passively participating in the entrenchment of the mis information by the pastors,villagers,
and after blaming the book as you succintly put it,"WHAT NEXT"we move on to other threads and forget about them

Who are behind these child abuse all in the name of exterminating witches?

YOU CAN HELP!

Contact this organization DIRECTLY!

Sam Ikpe-Itauma, Director
Child's Right And Rehabilitation Network (CRARN),
Ikot Afaha-Idung Ukpa,
P. M. B. 1042 Eket, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.
Visit our websites @ www.crarn.org or Childs Rights and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN)
Phone (Hotline ): +2348026693099
Talk to the children direct, call +2348086754666
Regististered with Corperate Affairs Commission Abuja, Nigeria.
Charity Number: CAC/IT/No 27195

If these children are really witches and wizards, they should have magically disappeared during such inhumane torture or better yet use their powers to kill the person torturing them. 

uneducated Nigerians and their rubbish!!! 

Ignorance.

Ask some of these charlatans to prove if a child is a witch/wizard and they will say that some of them are "Nnan Ifot", that is, even they are not aware of their status/initiation into witchcraft.



http://naijablog..com/2007/12/child-witches-of-akwa-ibom.html

@ bloodshed blame the oughful book calle the bible?
wast it u who just said the bible had instructed those people to kill the witches and wizards? now ure against the bible as well? its not the bibl. its the pastors interpreting the bible. christianity is not about refenge neither is it about judging others. if it was why stick to only christianity? we might as well all break out to start worshiping idols and all dose ogun things im sure there you we have a very very wicked god to serve!

its simple the patsors have manipulated the words of the bible to suit themselves, get money and live a comfortable life.
the people are uneducated and therefore do not see simple reason like, if they wer really witches how come they havent killed us all yet, or dissapeared? the pastors say they cane because everynight they dont let them sleep but fast and pary so the children cannot go to the coven! but cmon if it wer really so how come there havnt been any attempts on the pastors lives by all the other members of the coven?!!

for all these pastors like they say wen its time for offering, preach from the new testament, if they share the money and they reduced your ration go to the old testament an eye for an eye!

Yar Adua is a useless president. He's not even my president sef. I didn't vote him in. He has the power to put an IMMEDIATE stop to all this rubbish, but what does he do? Sit in Aso Rock and parrot like a mindless fool about 'Rule of Law' while Nigeria's children are being slaughtered in a glorified mass murder.


The same goes for that bombastic idiot called the Governor of Akwa Ibom

And for anyone that is about to ask me what Yar Adua has to do with this: He has EVERYTHING to do with this. Endangerment of a child is a FEDERAL ISSUE. It is not a joke and cannot and should not be messed with or taken lightly. Children are the most precious thing that exist on this Earth, and it is our BOUNDEN DUTY to protect them with everything we have.