In fulfillment of an earlier pledge to ‘deal with’ child rights groups in Akwa Ibom which are fighting against the child witch phenomenon in the state, state governor Goodswill Akpabio has filed charges of witchcraft accusations against Mr. Sam Ikpe-Itauma, a child rights activist at an Oron High Court.
In fulfillment of an earlier pledge to ‘deal with’ child rights groups in Akwa Ibom which are fighting against the child witch phenomenon in the state, state governor Goodswill Akpabio has filed charges of witchcraft accusations against Mr. Sam Ikpe-Itauma, a child rights activist at an Oron High Court.
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Akpabio whose only concern is that the witchcraft stigmatization has portrayed his government poorly, promised that ‘heads will roll’ when a report on the child witch situation was aired on CNN.
SaharaReporters can report that the Government took Itauma and the legal team by surprise as he sought to dump the activist him in prison custody in order to dissuade other activists into abandoning the issue, but the diligent argument of the lead counsel, Mr. Pius Madaki, saved the day.
Sam Itauma was invited as a star witness to testify against a clergyman, Bishop Samuel Okon William, who is being prosecuted by the state for stigmatising children accused of witchcraft.
Bishop William, who is of the Spiritual Healing Church in Ibaka, has been standing trial for allegedly confessing to the killing of over 100 child witches in a documentary aired on BBC Channel 4.
An earlier charge of murder was amended because the Attorney General of Akwa Ibom could not substantiate and sustain that charge.
The counsel for the State, C.J Udoh, had applied to the presiding Judge Justice A.E. Archibong to amend the charge list to include Ikpe-Itauma as an accused.
Udoh’s application was opposed by Mr. Madaki, who argued that it was unfair to invite a ‘star’ witness only to put him in the dock when he had no prior information of the charges being leveled against him.
“The prosecution has just set ambush to the accused; the accused came on invitation to testify as a witness, we are embarrassed that a known crusader against child stigmatisation can be hounded into the dock when he was in court to testify against an accused.
“The law states that service of charges is mandatory before arraignment and must be strictly complied with in all criminal proceedings; Ikpe-Itauma had no prior information on the charges filed against him and is not prepared for arraignment,” Madaki said.
He maintained that the law provides that an accused person is entitled to prior notice of the charges before arraignment and taking of his plea.
The presiding judge ruled that Ikpe-Itauma was entitled to service of the charges filed against him before arraignment, and adjourned the case to February 7 to enable the prosecution to serve the accused.
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