It was not April fool. But the benevolent gesture by few members of the Pentecostal church which fell on Easter Monday was a serious event. April 2 was a public holiday marked by many civil servants in Nigeria indeed Akwa Ibom at home. Others relaxed with their loved ones and children at different playgrounds, drinking pubs and eateries.
Rather than staying home with their loved ones, members of We-Care Ministry, Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, 12 Urua Udofia Street, Uyo celebrated their Easter Monday with the inmates of Divine Children’s Home Atan Offot, Uyo. They brought raw and cooked food and other gifts items to share with the children.
How The Home Started
The orphanage home set up by Family Live Enhancement Initiative, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) was pioneered by Mrs. Ekaette Unoma Akpabio, wife of the then Akwa Ibom State governor.
The inmates are vulnerable children who were branded “witches” and “wizards” and sent out of their homes before the state government evacuated them to Uyo Security Village.
Before then, Gary Foxcroft of the UK-based child rights charity, Stepping Stones Nigeria and Samuel Ikpe-Itauma, his Nigerian partner of Eket-based Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN) had catered for the children abused and abandoned by their families after some rogue pastors declared them to be witches and wizards.
In 2009, ex-governor Godswill Akpabio was said to have accused the CRARN, the NGO of exaggerating the child witch syndrome in the state for monetary gain, closed down the home and moved the children to Uyo for rehabilitation.
In particular, the state government was reported to have directed the immediate arrest of Itauma of Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN) and Foxcroft of Stepping Stone Nigeria (SSN), the two NGOs actively involved in focusing world attention on the plight of innocent children in that state.
Mr.Akpabio’s action was a follow-up to the interview he recently granted the CNN wherein he surmised thus: Reports of child abuse associated with witchcraft in his state are grossly exaggerated. It is a minimal problem which has been instantly corrected by signing the Child Rights bill to law in 2008 and the problem in Akwa Ibom state is not witchcraft but poverty.
Again, Akpabio was said to be irked by the report sent by SSN to the United Nations on this child witchcraft issue.
Responding to allegations that the child witch issue in Akwa Ibom State has been “exaggerated,” Itauma, the founder and director of the centre, said in a statement, “Over the last seven years CRARN has dealt with numerous horrific cases of child abuse linked to the belief in child witches.
“Recent reports by UNICEF and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child show this problem is real and that it has not been exaggerated at all.”
He also dismissed the allegations of fraud by stating that they remain committed to fighting for the rights of the so-called child witches in Akwa Ibom.
Apart from the leaders of Stepping Stones and CRARN accusing Akwa Ibom government of being the brain behind their ordeal, they equally pointed accusing fingers at Mrs. Helen Ukpabio, the founder of Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries.
Ukpabio whohad advised parents “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,” was accused of exploiting superstitious beliefs around demonic possession and endangering children.
She offered “deliverance” sessions, crude exorcisms which have been accused of fuelling witchcraft accusations against children in Nigeria.
During the heat of the accusation period, she had rolled out posters for a crusade in London. The poster for the planned event in south London promised “disconnections from all spiritual attacks” and asked: “are you under witchcraft attack? Ancestral spirit attack? Mermaid spirit attack?
The leaftet urged Londoners to “come and be disconnected from all spiritual attacks.”
Channel 4 News has learnt that the original Deptford venue pulled out after hearing about the nature of the event, and it had to be held elsewhere.
Ukpabio produces films about supposed demonic possession of young children and mock satanic rituals performed by child actors. Her most famous work End of The Wicked shows child actors plotting to murder their parents and eat their flesh.
In 2008, the Channel 4 Disptaches documentary Saving Africa’s Witch Children exposed the work done by Ukpabio’s ministry.
That documentary followed the work of Gary Foxcroft, an Englishman who devoted his life to helping vulnerable children through the charity Stepping Stones Nigeria.
His charity identified a number of root causes of child witchcraft accusations that can lead to abandonment and killings; chiefly fake pastors profiting from “exorcisms” and extreme poverty and superstitious cultural beliefs.
A report by Stepping Stones found that children accused of witchcraft end up living on the streets “without access to food, water, shelter, medical care or education”.
The charity also found evidence that these children could face vulnerability to child exploitation and trafficking. They have highlighted the case of an eight year old boy murdered due to fears he was a “witch” in August of 2010.
Ukpabio was lamost lynched, but was advised to return to Nigeria for her own safety.
Some Inmates Speaking
In confirming the story of the witchcraft saga, one of the inmates of CRARN, Miss Helen Unwana Bassey told Straightnews “I was thrown out from our house on accusation that I was a witch. I stayed in an uncompleted house in Eket. One man, Sam Itauma came and picked me to his home. Later, I was adopted by Akwa Ibom government in 2009. My parents and grand-parents are all dead.
The 16-year-old Bassey who hails from Ekpene Enin in Eket local government area is now an inmate of Divine Children’s Home. “When I wnen to fill an online for Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, in Uyo, I saw a man and we interacted and he asked where I was from. I told him and he informed me that he knew my parents and my grand-parents who are now deceased.”
Straightnews wanted to know if she still bears grudge against her accusers and she responded, “I have forgiven my parents for their accusation. However, I want to advise parents not throw away their children because ‘You may not know the child God sent to raise you in life’.
“I know the false prophets cause parents to abandon their children. Even children who are thrown out, you should have faith in God.”
“I have finished secondary school. I sat for WAEC and made my result. I want to read Business Administration in the university.”
Another inmate, Godswill Ezekiel Udoh narrated his experiences in the home and future career to Straightnews.
Master Udoh, an indigene of Edem Idim Ibakesi in Ikono local government area sadi”I was abandoned by my mother after she had given birth to me. I have not met my father before. I was abandoned in the street of Port Harcourt and stigmatized.
“I went with my mother to a Church in Port Harcourt. She took me to children’s department and went to adult department. After the church service, I did not see my mother again. After some days, I was driven to the streets. I roamed about the streets and reported to the police station. Later, the police took me to Ikono where I lived with my grandfather. Since he did not have enough, I left for the streets.
“I came to Uyo and someone introduced me to this home which was at IBB Avenue, Uyo where I was admitted into the home in 2012.”
According to him, “I am in SSS 11 in Nigerian Christian Secondary School, Ukpom Abak. My father did not marry my mother. I want to advise spinsters to be careful noit to enter into an unstable relationship with men who are not ready for marriage. In short, do not allow a man who is not your husband or who is not ready to take up the responsibility to put you in the family way.”
The promising, articulate 14-year-old declared “I want to read Law in the university because I want to defend child’s rights.”
This is the fate of more than 160 inmates of the home now managed by Mrs. Martha Udom Emmanuel, wife of Akwa Ibom governor under her Pet-project, Family Empowerment and Youth Re-orientation Path-Initiative (FEYReP), while Mrs. Ime Ephraim Inyang-eyen, wife of the state commissioner for Works is the coordinator.
Apart from this, the state Ministry of Women Affairs, the supervisory ministry, scouts for abandoned children and takes them to the home.
Mrs. Imoh Brown, supervisor, Divine Children’s Home, Uyo confirms “Last year, the ministry brought 10 abandoned otherwise known as street children to the home. Some of the children are graduates and three are undergraduates- one is reading law, computer science, 13 are Jambites. About 165 inmates are in the home.”
MFM, Uyo Touching Lives In the Home
On April 2, this year, Engr. Robert Edikan Ekpo, chairman of We care Ministry in the church, together with other members of the church visited the home to touch lives of the inmates.
The occasion was colourful and exciting laced with soul-lifting songs, and salvation messages.The event featured special songs rendition, dances and choreography display. The church Orchestra and choir were on hand to entertain. The inmates were in high spirit as the members of the feted them with spiritual and physical food.
Ekpo told Straightnews “The scripture says we should remember those who are weaker than us and that we should give because it shall be given unto us.If you give, you are sowing and when you are sowing you can reap.
“So, these are the weaker vessels God says we should take care of them that are poor in the house of faith. These people do not have fathers or mothers and nobody provide for them. So, if you leave them like that, where is the place of the church? It is the place of the church to take care of them.
“I felt satisfied because we did what God enjoins us to do on earth. As a person, you feel the satisfaction in you that you have been able to fulfil the instruction of God in the Bible. When those children were happy, I was happy. The only thing in this world that gives me joy is when other people especially the less privileged like those children are happy.
His advice “I want to advise public-spirited individuals in the society not store their substance for themselves but should dispense for the use of the less-privileged. Try to transfer what you have to other people.
“Don’t forget that the scripture says Jesus will ask on that when I was sick, you did not visit; when I was hungry, you did not give me food. When God blesses you as a philanthropist, you, try to reach out to other people in order to derive joy.”
Mrs. Brown, the home supervisor also a member of We-care ministry in MFM lamented “Our problem is the constant flooding in the school premises and we want government to provide drains in the school. Some children are orphans while others are from the less privileged parents.
To rejig the spiritual lives of the inmates, MFM under the leadership of Pastor Sam Etok, regional Overseer of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, South South 33 Region, organises teachings, deliverance and sports for inmates of the home during the church’s yearly children retreat.
The home iss fast becoming home away from home and government, churches and FEYrEp are busily turning the inmates who have been wasted are becoming useful to the society through their academic and other forms of informal training.
