Nigerian Witchfinder Update: Ukpabio Denounces Critics

Man who runs home for “witch” children accused of being “a wizard”

Lawyers writing to documentary-makers and to Guardian

Claims mob “almost killed” her in London

Helen Ukpabio, the Nigerian neo-Pentecostal witchfinder who has been on the receiving end of considerable opprobrium following a Channel 4 documentary, has given a defiant interview to Modern Ghana. She accuses Sam Itauma, who runs a hostel for children who have been rejected by their families after being accused of witchcraft, of being a wizard who is “trying to preserve the posterity of witches”, and she also claims he is trying to “tap into” British charitable funds for accused child witches in Congo:

He has now turned those children to become witches for the sake of money. Let it be so for him and whoever is supporting him.

She also once again asserts that some children have a supernatural power to cause harm, as she discusses her horror movie End of the Wicked:

The film simply says if a child is greedy – the type that says give me this, give me that, give me puff-puff, akara or sweet in school, he or she could be easily contaminated with witchcraft. So, saying that the film branded children witches, I didn’t see the people that the film branded witches. Rather, we saw children who were greedy and were contaminated by other children who were witches in the school…

I must say I can’t quite grasp the distinction she’s getting at here.

Ukpbabio also warns:

 I have asked my lawyers to write to the BBC and The Guardian of London.

She means “Channel 4” rather than the BBC, but I’m sure the letter will get there eventually.

Ukpabio also complains about how she was recently received in the UK:

They almost mobbed me in London when I arrived on November 13, after the people watched the mischievous documentary…I arrived Heathrow Airport on 13 and as I walked pass to pick a taxi, somebody stopped and said, “You are Helen, right?” when I said “yes”, she went on, “You are very wicked. You kill children in Nigeria. Oh my God. You are the real devil. They were showing you on TV yesterday.” As she was talking, a crowd gathered and all the people were very angry. They almost killed me in London…When I got to the hotel, I decided to find a shop and buy recharge card for my phone. Again, another girl, this time a Nigerian screamed, “Oh you, you parade yourself as an evangelist but you kill children. God will punish you.” She now called her friend and before we knew it, people gathered. I left them…I left just after three days and left for Los Angeles. There the same scenario repeated itself.

Gosh, being on the receiving end of public hostility after being accused of something isn’t very nice, is it?

child-protest-in-nigeria

Ukpabio believes these children are lying, and that the man is a wizard

(Hat tip: Bulldada Newsblog)

21 Responses

  1. […] child-witchfinders exposed by Channel 4 late last year are based. One wonders if Madaki has seen Helen Ukpabio‘s horror film End of the […]

  2. […] this line before, as I blogged here, but it remains an incoherent objection. We’re also told that […]

  3. […] was seized, and it is alleged that children were beaten by police when they objected. Ukpabio has stated that Itauma is a wizard, and that Stepping Stones exists simply to gain NGO money. The raid has […]

  4. […] that the children CRARN protects really are witches who need “deliverance”. She also alleges fraud, and that she has been unfairly villified – in particular, she was abused on a trip to London […]

  5. […] was aired last year, Ukpabio became the focus for considerable public anger and disgust – she claims that on a trip to London soon after, she was nearly killed by a mob. However, Ukpabio has many […]

  6. […] 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 […]

  7. My father was accused of being a witch by A small Methodist Mexican congregation in Brownfield Tx. back in the 80’s . This is what happens when you don’t keep tabs on Christians!

  8. […] of lawsuits against those involved in making the documentary (including the narrator). She also denounced Itauma as a “wizard”, and her lawyer Victor Ukutt arranged for police to raid CRARN. […]

  9. […] what happened to Saddam Hussein”, and set her lawyers and police on Ikpe-Itauma, whom she accuses of being a “wizard”. Members of her church also invaded a conference on subject […]

  10. […] of child-witches; as well as sending her church members to attack Leo’s conference, she has denounced a hostel for children stigmatmised as witches as being run by a “wizard”, and she has […]

  11. […] organisations have come under sustained attack from Ukpabio’s followers, and she has sought to have their hostel for stigmatised children shut […]

  12. […] of abusive messages from her followers. She has also tried to have Sam’s hostel shut down, accusing him of being a […]

  13. […] I mentioned yesterday that Ukpabio  has tried to have the hostel where Mary now lives shut down, accusing its director of being a “wizard”. As I’ve noted before, she differentiates […]

  14. […] children can cause misfortune as witches, and she tried to have the hostel shut down last year. She has denounced San Itauma as a “wizard” who has “turned those children to become witches for the […]

  15. […] and that Sam Ituama, who runs a hostel protecting “witch-children”, was himself a wizard. A previous bit of “lawfare” undertaken by Ukpabio was dismissed in […]

  16. […] stigmatised “witch-children”, much to Ukpabio’s fury: she has declared that he is a wizard and that attempts to educate the public against the idea that children can be witches is an attempt […]

  17. […] hostel which looks after children who have been abandoned as witches; Ukpabio has tried to have it closed down, and she has denounced Sam as a “wizard”. According to Sahara Reporters, the […]

  18. […] targets have included a man who runs a hostel for stigmatised children, whom she denounced as a “wizard”; the governor of Akwa Ibom […]

  19. […] should also be noted that Ukpabio exhibits malign behaviour: her targets have included a man who runs a hostel for stigmatised children, whom she denounced as a “wizard”; the governor of Akwa Ibom […]

  20. […] and attempted to shut down a hostel for children which she claimed was being run by a “wizard“. Critics – including this blog – have also been subjected to crude abuse on a […]

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