Support for Helen Ukpabio against “Anti-Child Witchcraft” Campaign

Nigerian Evangelist praises attack on conference about children accused of witchcraft

The ranting video above shows Bishop N. E. Moses of Overcomers Church World Outreach praising members of Liberty Gospel Church for physically attacking a conference on the subject of children who have been accused of witchcraft by evangelists:

…entering into Calabar I was told how some people had organised themselves to come and blackmail – as a matter of fact I have the document – to come and blackmail the Liberty Church. But you know what the people of Liberty did? They did not fold their hands. They did not fold their hands. One telephone call overnight, men and women of Liberty Foundation jumped on [?] the hall and took over. Took over. Guess what? Took over! Took over! Come on, took over! You did the right thing. Listen, you did the right thing. We shall not run and get into our bedrooms. We shall not allow the enemy to take over. Do you understand what I’m saying?

Moses is refering to the event I blogged about here, at which the Nigerian humanist Leo Igwe was assaulted. As was reported at the time:

As the anti-witchcraft conference began at around 10.30am…religious protestors dressed in orange raided the venue and began protesting loudly. The exremists were carrying a number of banners with slogans such as, “This protest is organised by The Akwa Ibim Government”, “We give freedom to the witches” and “Stepping Stone is not a registered organisation”.

Liberty Gospel Church is headed by Helen Ukpabio, who can be seen in the video above, standing smugly behind Moses and bobbing up and down with excitement. Ukpabio – as has been widely reported – is just one evangelist who teaches that children can become witches, and will be dangerous to their families unless they are “delivered” through a form of exorcism, but she has been particularly influential due to her horror films and books on the subject. This belief in “child witches” has led to a major hysteria, with children being abandoned by their families and subjected to abuse; there have also been deaths. Channel 4 in the UK has run two documentaries on the subject (see here and here).

Ukpabio claims that these outcomes are not her fault – but as well as sending her followers to attack Leo’s conference, she has also tried to shut down a hostel for children who have been accused of witchcraft, again by force (the man who runs it is “a wizard”, she insists), and she has fired off lawsuits in all directions – although one against Leo was dismissed just recently. She has also threatened the life of state governor Godswill Akpabio, who has passed legislation against accusing children of witchcraft, by warning him to “remember what happened to Saddam Hussein”.

Moses goes on to rail against government support for “atheists” who intend to “cripple the work of God”, reaching a crescendo:

The enemy is attacking! Witches attacking! Wizards attacking! Atheists attacking!

A second video shows more of the same.

Bishop Moses consecrated Ukpabio as an “apostle” in August. Newswatch reported at the time that

The consecration service led by Bishop Nnadi E Moses, president of Apostolic Impact Global Outreach, Nigeria and bishop of Overcomers Faith Mission, Lagos, [was] held at the Palace Temple headquarters, Calabar.

A second report adds:

The two-day event, which held elaborately at the Palace Temple headquarters of the Liberty Gospel Church, was well attended by top government officials, royal fathers, Nollywood stars, celebrities, diplomats, Nigerians in the Diaspora, family members and well-wishers… In their thought-provoking good will/congratulatory message, the Cross River State chapter of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), where Ukpabio holds sway as its Treasurer, congratulated the celebrant, saying that her consecration as a lady apostle of the most High, was an honour well-deserved.

Moses also publicly gave his backing to Ukpabio a few days ago;  This Day reported:

A Lagos-based clergy, Nnadi E. Moses, has described film producer and General Overseer of Liberty Gospel Church, Calabar, Apostle Helen Ukpabio, as an exceedingly gifted woman whose ministry has brought a lot of hope to families around the country.

Moses, bishop of Overcomers Faith Mission, Lagos, who was a guest speaker at the recently concluded convention of Liberty Gospel Church, held in the premises of Government Secondary School, Ikot Ansa, Calabar, said over the years, Ukpabio had battled spiritual forces that held men and women bondage. She has helped to deliver many from demonic powers, hardship, poverty and death occasioned by the demons, witches and wizards, Moses said…The Overcomers leader called on the nation to celebrate Ukpabio’s rare apostolic gifts.

…Among ministers of God who officiated at the event were pastors Eyo Nkute, Louis Oku, Excellence Sambo, and Alobi Ofuka – superintendents of the church in Port Harcourt, Lagos, Abuja, and Enugu, respectively.

Moses has a website here. It tells us that

Bishop Moses, Being a man called of God and under assignment has for several years played a host to the overcomers’ power encounter network (Open), a weekly programme on the Nigerian most popular television (NTA 10). This Programme has massively blessed millions of viewers across the nation.

His burden for souls has resulted in planting several satellite parishes of the overcomers church world outreach in several states of Nigeria, London and South Africa respectively.

He is the president of “Apostolic Impact Global Outreach” (AIG), a network of over one thousand pastors from diverse denominations in Nigeria.

His wife, meanwhile, has her own ministry, “Deliverance by Fire“:

In 1993, Virgy Moses was ordained a pastor at the Reach Out for Christ International Ministries in the U.S.A. It was in 2003, however, that this woman of God answered the call of God to serve as a full time minister at the Overcomer Church World Outreach… Rev. Mrs. Virgy Moses is happily married to Bishop N.E Moses, a thought provoking preacher of the word who ministers with deep biblical insight and revelation. He is the founder of Overcomers Church World Outreach and also the facilitator of Apostolic Impact Global Outreach where God is mightily using him to encourage pastors.

Bishop Moses also enjoys the support of the Faith World Outreach Church, based in Bartlett, Illinois. According to this church’s website:

We have been supporting churches in Nigeria for over 15 years! Bishop Moses is diligently working to share the gospel with everyone who will listen. They have began many churches in Nigeria and other parts of Africa, and continue to pave the way for more.

FWO is run by Pastor Ed Weiss; this site mentions that he was with Bishop Moses and a team in Warri in 2004.

As well as encouraging Christians attack conferences, Bishop Moses’ “gospel” includes a particular revelation about the spiritual causes behind air accidents.  The Daily Sun reported on this in 2006:

“I used to believe before now that most air tragedies are as a result of either pilot error, aircraft technical faults, bad weather and lack of maintenance especially in Africa. However, when God spoke to me late last year (December 2005) to take a prayer conference round the nation to saturate the air space of Nigeria with ‘His Arm of Grace’, I got to know then that there is more to air and road accidents than humanly thought of,” says Bishop Nnadi Egochukwu Moses, the presiding bishop of Overcomers Church and president, Grace and Truth Ministries Aguda, Surulere, Lagos…. Satan operates in the air too!

…When God therefore spoke to me to take up the challenge to stand in the gap for Nigeria air travellers and safeguard the aviation industry, it dawned on me that this bastard called Satan is at war with Nigeria. He is not only ready to totally corrupt our political system, destroy our economy by the use of militants groups everywhere but also out to reduce the elite population to nothing. He knows that it is the elite and those in power that fly. You can see how dangerous his plans are.

19 Responses

  1. Helen Ukpabio and those who support her – such as this idiot “Bishop” Moses – are child abusers of the worst kind. Unfounded accusations of witchcraft against helpless children that lead to their torture, abandonment and even death should be treated as incitement to murder. The perpetrators should be given long jail sentences and locked away where they can do no more harm.

    Clearly God will not protect these children. It is for those of us who care about defenceless children to do so.

    • My friend one thing you fail to understand is,you do not say or approve things based on baseless debates.If you know this woman,you wont join people that have no other jobs but to use computer keyboards to manipulate or distort informations.She is a gift to to this world.One other thing you must know,your campaign is not against her but against God and soon He will show up.

      • am not to judge any body…but even if a person is evil, who are u to kill them or harm them, shes passing her messages wrongly….this community is full of uneducated and ignorant ppl, they are taking things too far with this children. which am very sure God is not happy with.

  2. Thanks very much for all your posts about the witchhunts. This horror needs more exposure.

    One thing leapt out at me: You said that Bishop Moses consecrated Ukpabio as an “apostle.” Does his organization have any connection with the New Apostolic Reformation? The NAR a fast-growing international religious movement that explicitly aims for Christian theocracy and has been blogged about quite a bit on Talk to Action lately?

    If there is indeed a connection here, you might consider bringing it to the attention of the Talk to Action folks, since it would help a lot in their vitally important work of exposing the NAR.

  3. Pathetic as they all look, so are their activities and actions. These fake,demonic,evil,stupid “pastors,evangelist etc” days are numbered as it has been in the past. But my worry is how many more lovely children will they destroy before all this comes to an end?

  4. It is very sad that Bishop Moses and his congregation have decided to exalt Helen Ukpabio and defend her continued determination to stigmatise children as witches in Nigeria.

    Despite the attacks by Ukpabio’s followers the child rights charity Stepping Stones Nigeria continues to work with partner organisations to provide accommodation, education, healthcare, food and rehabilitation to vulnerable children including the so-called ‘witches’ and ‘wizards’ of the Niger Delta.

    Through advocacy and research Stepping Stones Nigeria campaigns at a local, national and international level to put a stop to the abuse of innocent children.

    To find out about their work visit http://www.steppingstonesnigeria.org

  5. […] invaded the venue. Other evangelists have come to her support, too – Bishop N. E. Moses recently made Ukpabio into an “Apostle”, and he praised the attack on Leo’s conference at an […]

  6. These illiterate and dangerous people are the main reason that southern Nigeria is now an economic wasteland. The completely amoral nature of life in Nigeria is due to these people. We think of terrorists as young muslim men with bombs. But I think these pentecostal weirdos are the real terrorists in Nigeria. They encourage illiteracy, a rejection of science, a rejection of logic, a rejection of humanity. They advocate the abuse of children (the opposite of Jesus’ message). I blame American pentecostals for funding this abomination. All organised religion should be abolished in Africa to enable technological and socio-economic development.

  7. […] efforts have come under sustained attack from the powerful evangelist Helen Ukpabio (recently promoted to “Apostle”) and her […]

  8. […] blogged on that event here – she was consecrated by Bishop Nnadi E Moses, who took the opportunity to praise […]

  9. […] Moses is a high-profile Nigerian evangelist, and he featured on this blog in February when I noted his consecration of Helen Ukpabio as an “Apostle” the previous August. […]

  10. Why are you the Article writer using this man and as supposedly to be a man of God, he is just as far away form God as Sin is, God did not call such a person to deliver his words, this is one of those false profits not to be associate with any of Gods people who believe in love respect of other and most of all that a mere man can not call anyone to God. We who study our bible know this because of what we have read in out True Bible, we do not extort the bible or pretend to be sent by God, lies, lies, how could anyone take such a person serious that is anyone with the knowledge of God himself.

  11. […] 2010 by Richard Bartholomew Sometime during May, an attack website was created to defend “Apostle” Helen Ukpabio following a critical article about her child-witch teachins in the New York […]

  12. […] Posted on July 3, 2010 by Richard Bartholomew As I blogged a few months ago, in August last year Helen Ukpabio was “consecrated” as an Apostle by Bishop N E Moses; […]

  13. About time we learnt from history and science. Educated people do not beleive in witches, possession, deliverances and certainly not for cash. see wiki pedia.
    After the 17th century, witch hunting gradually died down as the influences of the AGE OF REASON began.

    Under George II the Witchcraft Act 1735, marked a complete reversal in attitudes. No longer were people to be hanged for consorting with evil spirits. Rather, a person who PRETENDED to have the power to call up spirits, or foretell the future, or cast spells, or discover the whereabouts of stolen goods was to be punished as a vagrant and a CON ARTIST, subject to fines and imprisonment.
    Even British 16th century witch hunt’s were generally against women and not young children.

  14. he says ‘jam-packed’ not ‘jumped on’.

    he’s a retard

  15. […] particular enemy of the children’s hostel is the powerful local evangelist ”Apostle” Helen Ukpabio. Ukpabio teaches through her books and films that children can […]

  16. […] Moses, whose American connections have been documented by Richard Bartholomew, in a blog post about Support for Helen Ukpabio against “Anti-Child Witchcraft” Campaign, February 13, 2010.  It is not yet clear to me whether Helen Ukpabio and Nnadi E. Moses are […]

  17. […] this story for some time, and I blogged on the attack on the workshop here; the invasion was later praised by another powerful evangelist, Bishop NE Moses. Ukpabio had argued that attempts to oppose […]

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