Child-witch: Akpabio outlaws stigmatisation of children
Goes After Erring Pastors
From Inem Akpan-Nsoh Uyo and Saliu Hakeem

Anybody found to be stigmatizing a child, as a witch or wizard in Akwa Ibom State will, henceforth, be liable to 10 years imprisonment.





Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom, while signing the Child Right Bill into law, expressed the hope that it would help check the increasing stigmatisation of children as witches and wizards in the state.

Performing the signing ceremony in Government House, Uyo, on Friday, Akpabio said: "The law makes it punishable with an imprisonment of 10 years to 15 years without any option of fine for a child to be accused of witchcraft"

For the purpose of speedy trial, the governor announced the establishment of a special family court to determine matters related to children.

Threatening to revoke the Certificate of Occupancy of prayer houses involved in the ungodly practice, the governor also pledged to demolish such houses said to be involved in propagating falsehood in the name of exorcising witchcraft demon from the suspected children.

"It is killing to label children as witches and wizards because of the psychological trauma they face in the society coupled with being ostracised," Governor Akpabio observed.

He said the future of children is in jeopardy as a result of such stigma and warned fake Pastors and misinformed members to desist from such practice, which is now a punishable offence in Akwa Ibom State.

The Act, the governor said, also takes care of kidnapping of children, child labour, outlaws begging, domestic or sexual labour, child prostitution, etc. It also made it mandatory for parents and guardians to ensure that their wards take advantage of the state government's free and compulsory education.

"A parent who runs foul of this law shall on first conviction be liable to a fine of not less than N5,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two months or both," he said.

Meanwhile, the Bishop who claimed to have killed 110 witchcraft children will appear in court on Monday for murder. Already, the police in Akwa Ibom have picked up and paraded the suspect and his accomplices before the press.

The Bishop, Ulup-Ayah, was interviewed and he claimed to have killed up to 110 witches and wizards. He also claimed that there were 2.3 million witches in Akwa Ibom State alone.

But Governor Akpabio described the Bishop's claim as false and only a figment of imagination of the self-styled Bishop. He said there was no verifiable means of determining if anybody was into witchcraft, therefore, it was totally wrong to brand anybody as a witch or wizard.

He attributed the practice to quest for instant financial reward.

Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Information and Social Re-orientation, Aniekan Umanah, informed that the manhunt for the pastors who have been wrecking havoc on innocent children with their witch hunting acts, has finally started.

http://odili.net/news/source/2008/dec/7/8.html

Hi,


Good.  I'm really glad to hear it. 

Thanks to Channel 4 TV in the UK for airing that program.  Glad everyone is now aware of it and finally taken a decisive action about it.

The next program to be aired on Channel 4 is about child brides in Nigeria.  It's scheduled to take place on the 2nd of January, 2009.



kiwi992.

kiwi992:

Hi,


Good.  I'm really glad to hear it. 

Thanks to Channel 4 TV in the UK for airing that program.  Glad everyone is now aware of it and finally taken a decisive action about it.

The next program to be aired on Channel 4 is about child brides in Nigeria.  It's scheduled to take place on the 2nd of January, 2009.



kiwi992.

What is with Channel 4 and Nigeria self? lol, they should make Channel 4 Nigeria, who agrees?

nice one finally protecting the kids in that state,
next step is the root cause which is poverty and illiteracy
ezeagu wats ur point?

Finally, some common sense being brought into a cacophony of ignorance! The real question is this: Is ten years enough? How can people be so stupid to believe a so-called pastor or bishop or whatever the hypocrite calls him/herself, that tells them "your child is a witch!"?

Nigeria is a country filled with ignorant people who will believe the most stupid claims in the world!
1. "Your pikin na winch", they believe.
2. "Your pikin dey fly for night", they believe.
3. "Na your grandmama use juju kill your pikin", they believe.
4. "Na your winch pikin kill your grandpapa", they believe.
5. "Na the juju way your landlord put for your domot dey make you suffer like dis", they believe!

Ten yeas is not enough! I recommend 25 years in prison with hard labor!

@Richyblack, you said there is nothing like juju and it is a fraud. Read this story below and tell me what it is:

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-204928.0.html

Good. Let me watch them throw Helen Ukpabio in jail.

OsunAmazon:

@Richyblack, you said there is nothing like juju and it is a fraud. Read this story below and tell me what it is:

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-204928.0.html

Is that the only juju-claim you can find?

Have you seen the one old babalawo living under the big Iroko tree near Cele bus-stop (along Apapa-Oshodi expressway) did to that Indian woman?

Watch and see the power of juju
[flash=425,344]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miBIEIehxDE&hl=en&fs=1[/flash]


Juju ko jojo ni!

Is that the only juju-claim you can find?

Have you seen the one old babalawo living under the big Iroko tree near Cele bus-stop (along Apapa-Oshodi expressway) did to that Indian woman?

Watch and see the power of juju

The video is not equivalent to a woman staying pregnant for 8 yrs. What could be the scientific explanation on why her pregnancy lasted for 8 years if not juju?

earTHMama:

The video is not equivalent to a woman staying pregnant for 8 years. What could be the scientific explanation on why her pregnancy lasted for 8 years if not juju?

So, a baby born with eight limbs is not due to juju but a woman with an exceptional case of prolonged gestation period is due to juju?

Is it that all anomalies are caused by the all-powerful babalawo throwing cowries on a dirt floor in a shabby hut in Ijebu-Remo?

You better stop believing in fantasies and come down to the reality here on planet earth. If I become the head-of-state of Nigeria, any juju priest that makes an extraordinary claim will be locked up for "making false claims with the intention of committing fraud". If he/she can use his/her magical powers to escape from the Kiri-kiri Maximum Security Prison, that juju priest would be recognized with a special "juju proficiency" award. No kidding!

So, a baby born with eight limbs is not due to juju but a woman with an exceptional case of prolonged gestation period is due to juju?

Is it that all anomalies are caused by the all-powerful babalawo throwing cowries on a dirt floor in a shabby hut in Ijebu-Remo?

You better stop believing in fantasies and come down to the reality here on planet earth. If I become the head-of-state of Nigeria, any juju priest that makes an extraordinary claim will be locked up for "making false claims with the intention of committing fraud". If he/she can use his/her magical powers to escape from the Kiri-kiri Maximum Security Prison, that juju priest would be recognized with a special "juju proficiency" award. No kidding!

Apples and oranges

Birth defects can never be compared to an 8 year pregnancy. You and I know that.

earTHMama:

Apples and oranges

Birth defects can never be compared to an 8 year pregnancy. You and I know that.

So, why don't you see the prolonged gestation period as just another medical anomaly?

On what basis do you claim that Baba Jinadu, the popular babalawo in Agege, is responsible for this?

So, why don't you see the prolonged gestation period as just another medical anomaly?

On what basis do you claim that Baba Jinadu, the popular babalawo in Agege, is responsible for this?

8 years? They couldn't remove it by caesarian all those years? And the child came out hale and hearty?. You gotta be kidding me.

earTHMama:

8 years? They couldn't remove it by caesarian all those years? And the child came out hale and hearty?. You gotta be kidding me.

what's your proof it had anything do with the spiritual?? and has the story been confirmed. could be yet another oyakilohme hoax

what's your proof it had anything do with the spiritual?? and has the story been confirmed. could be yet another oyakilohme hoax

Is Oyakhilome a hoax.

bawomolo:

what's your proof it had anything do with the spiritual?? and has the story been confirmed. could be yet another oyakilohme hoax

Correct!

The story may be false. In Nigeria, even the journalists are not objective thinkers, many still believe in hocus-pocus!

Good. But I think ten years is excessive.

Give them 1 year for stigmatization and 5 years if there was any physical abuse involved.

Seun

OK, lets barter or haggle. I raise your 5 years to 15 years for stigmatizing and I will see you with the death penalty for
physical abuse.

Time to show your hand