Cross River State Commissioner of Police, Dragon Grimah
By Anietie Akpan
Current crusade by Pastor Helen Ukpabio and the Liberty Gospel Church in Calabar, Cross River state in South South Nigeria to free people from witchcraft attacks has attracted criticisms and condemnations from human rights groups.
Accordingly the human rights groups in a statement on Friday have called “for the arrest of the renowned Witch-Hunting Pastor – Helen Ukpabio”.
Widespread international and national outrage and disbelief has greeted this week’s announcement that Pastor – Helen Ukpabio – has commenced her witch-hunting activities once more in Cross River State, Nigeria.
The witch hunting campaign is titled: “Freedom from Witchcraft Attacks”, with preaching to her followers that commenced on May 8 and will end on May 12 and according to the flyer will be on how they can “regain freedom to be happy, established, prosper, excel, elevated, healthy.
According to her and the Liberty Gospel Church the “covens are in trouble” and the “witches are on the run”.
However this current campaign is not going down well with the human rights groups as they said “Ukpabio’s witch-hunting activities have been widely linked in a variety of UN papers, academic studies and TV documentaries to the high rates of children being accused of witchcraft in Cross River state and Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria”.
According to the Lead Counsel of the Basic Rights Counsel Initiative, Barr. James Ibor, “Helen Ukpabio’s continued witch-hunting activities not only bring shame and embarrassment to Nigeria, they are also illegal. The Child Rights Law in both Cross River State and Akwa Ibom State now criminalises the act of accusing children of witchcraft”.
He argued that Section 210 of the Nigerian Criminal Code criminalises the act of “accusing anyone of being a witch or having the power of witchcraft” and “we therefore call on the Commissioner for Police to arrest Helen Ukpabio and any other person promoting beliefs that lead to the abandonment, torture and murder of innocent children”
In 2021 the United Nation Human Rights Council passed an historic resolution on the elimination of harmful practices related to accusations of witchcraft and ritual attacks. The resolution called on state parties to take action to prevent such atrocities being carried out and, in particular, called for more action to be taken to combat the malevolent activities of pastors such as Helen Ukpabio.
They said “in 2022 the Pan-African Parliament even went so far to label Ukpabio a “pastropreneur” who “is believed to have contributed to the torture and abandonment of thousands of children in Nigeria”.
Leo Igwe, Director of Advocacy for Alleged Witches said: “ These renewed witch-hunting activities by Liberty Gospel Church once more promote the misguided belief that children can be witches. Such harmful beliefs and practices lead to children we have worked with being macheted to death, set on fire, drowned and/or forced to drink poisonous concoctions in order to dispel the perceived ‘witchcraft’.
“Such beliefs and practices have no place in the 21st century and government and police agencies need to uphold the law to ensure justice for the innocent victims of this horrific abuse”.
Speaking from the UK, Chairman of Safe Child Africa, Gary Foxcroft said: “the activities of fake prophets have demonstrably led to some of the worst human rights atrocities seen in the world today.
He said, “despite this, she has shown zero remorse or willingness to stop her religious profiteering. Her renewed witch-hunting activities in Calabar are not only illegal, they also paint a negative picture of Nigeria to the international community. As someone who loves Nigeria and it’s people, I personally find this saddening.
“We therefore call on state agencies to do the right thing and arrest Helen Ukpabio, so that Nigeria may help uphold its International, National and State-level legal obligations”.
Recall that on an international level, visits by Ukpabio to the USA and UK have seen protesters taking to the streets to demonstrate against people like her being allowed into the countries to promote beliefs that incite violence against children.
Foxcroft said a particular high point for such protesters came in 2014 when the UK Home Secretary, Theresa May, deported Helen Ukpabio from the UK on the grounds that she was a threat to public safety.
