The judicial commission of Inquiry into witchcraft accusations and child abuses raised by the Akwa Ibom state government concluded its fact finding trip to Eket communities last weekend.
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The judicial commission of Inquiry into witchcraft accusations and child abuses raised by the Akwa Ibom state government concluded its fact finding trip to Eket communities last weekend.
Contrary to claims by Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom state the "child-witch syndrome" in the state was being exaggerated by child rights advocates and activists in the state; the commission have continued to dig up concrete evidences to prove the prevalence of stigmatization of thousands of vulnerable children in the state.
The panel has been besieged by witnesses who had turned up to submit both written and oral evidences on the plight of children.
SaharaReporters investigations in Akwa Ibom shows that the Akpabio administration has merely been paying lip service to the plight of children stigmatized on account of witchcraft allegations.
Though Akpabio brags that he has enacted the child rights Act in the state which makes it illegal to call any child a witch since 2008, no person has been convicted under the act while the branding of children has persisted.
Akwa Ibom government also runs a free and compulsory primary and secondary education but children still hawk merchandise at the state secretariat and other public places during school hours but no parent has been sanctioned according to the existing legislation.
SaharaReporters also uncovered that there are far many more children in private orphanages who are having a herculean task of providing welfare for the children under their care in the state.
While Akwa Ibom ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare said it has 178 children in its custody; more than 1500 children receiving care in just three private orphanages so far visited by Sahara Reporters.
While reacting to a news report by SaharaReporters which quoted three Directors from the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare who appeared before the Witchcraft Panel as saying that the Ministry has no specific budget for abandoned children, the Commissioner Mrs Eunice Thomas addressed a press conference to announce that Government spends N10 million quarterly on 178 abandoned children in the Ministry’s custody.
The governor had in a response to an independent report by CNN last year accused the NGO’s providing welfare to children abandoned and stigmatised as witches by the society and neglected by the government of fraud.
The six-member panel headed by Justice Abraham Joseph which earlier visited two abandoned children’s homes in Eket visited Afaha Ekpenedi community in Esit Eket where scores of people accused of witchcraft were reportedly buried alive in 2008.
The panel was escorted to the area by a survivor, a Junior Secondary 1 student (names withheld) who is kept at the Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN) Centre for abandoned Children.
At the community members of the Witchcraft commission saw relics of the house of the slain victims which were set ablaze by their assailants who claimed that they were cleansing the community of people suspected to be witches.
Some witnesses who testified to the Panel had stated that people suspected to be witches in the community were killed and buried in shallow grave in the community.
The surviving victim showed the commission two shallow graves where a victim and his son were alleged to have been buried.
According to her, she escaped because she went to fetch water on the fateful day and when she heard of the incident she fled the community and later taken to the CRARN centre by a good samaritan.
When the Commission visited the palace of the traditional ruler of the area, the place was deserted as the Chief took to his heels to avert arrest.
It will be recalled that the panel sworn in by Akpabio on November 22, 2010 and commenced public sitting in January 2011 was given a six week time frame to turn in its report.
The panel comprising medical experts, lawyers, clergy and educationists which was saddled with the responsibility to recommend appropriate actions to be taken to protect children from being branded as witches and wizards in order to guard against future occurrence is faced with the moral burden of having the courage to tell Governor Akpabio the truth regarding its findings.
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