1. Thank you for sharing this very depressing story. But as you have found out and from what we had known long before this Commission was set up, this ugly practice has been ongoing for quite a while. Isn't it interesting that the very person, Sam Itauma of CRARN, who along with his staff of volunteers, have been providing succour and refuge to these abused children, have been hounded and forced to go underground by the same government whose Attorney General would now see fit to give out N5000 for the treatment of an innocent victim?
Shall we ask the Attorney General whose duty it is to enforce the laws of the land, how many offenders/violators of the Child Rights Act he has successfully prosecuted and sent to jail?
I recall when this issue first hit limelight a couple of years ago, the state government and its cohort of praise singers both at home and abroad, went into attacking mode, trying to discredit the story and attacking the purveyors, Sam Itauma and Gary Foxcroft as miscreants out to tarnish the image of the state. So nasty was the attack that both the governor and Commissioner Anieka Umanah took to the international media to denounce attempts by the duo to "deliberately smear" the "good image" of the state. In their failed attempt to drown out the outrage that followed the release of the video recordings/documentaries documenting the horrific conditions and outright barbaric practices associated with the witchcraft saga, the sad/disturbing development was characterized by government as significantly minimal, and therefore inconsequential and highly localized. However, today, the truth keeps coming out as to the vast, widespread nature of this evil practice and the horrific, unbelievable, inhumane, barbaric, torture/pain endured by these children where they are lucky to be alive. No human being, not even an unrepentant serial killer, should be subjected to the kind of treatment these innocent, helpless children have been subjected to. It should jar our sensibilities and our conscience to no end that our outrage would/should be vociferously clear/registered.
I recall vividly in our exchanges on these forums and others when Commissioner Umanah first hinted at government's plans to set up a commission. Given the condescending comments that he would make, it is/was my conclusion (as well as many others) that it (government) never envisaged the commission to unravel so much. I remember Commissioner Umanah's comments once (obviously in gleeful anticipation of the Commission not coming up with any evidence to substantiate the weighty and deeply disturbing allegations that were rife at the time), when he effectively/pretty much said something like this: "Ehn, they will show us those maimed and tortured children. They will show us the shallow graves holding murdered children accused of witchcraft. Ehn, it is not enough to make wild and unsubstantiated accusations/allegations in an attempt to blackmail government. They will show us."
I wonder how he feels just about now following the many testimonies and evidences presented before the Commission. We didn't even know at the time that the Ministry of Women Affairs had in its custody close to 200 children affected by the child witchcraft saga. We didn't know that there are other facilities across the state also housing hundreds of children also maimed, tortured, and abandoned by demented adults. And indeed Commissioner Aniekan Umanah, the Commission has visited areas where shallow graves holding innocent victims in parts of Esit Eket, other local government areas do indeed exist. The Commission has visited and has seen the many victims of this very ugly practice with their varying degrees of scars to prove they were indeed victims of the child witchcraft saga. If anything, now we know that we had actually grossly underestimated the endemic nature of the practice and grossly underestimated the number of victims and the horrific, barbaric treatment suffered by them.
Reading through the terms of the Commission as given to it by the governor, it was clear that the intent of government was dubious at best. However, maybe sometimes good things can come out of dubious intentions. Talk of unintended outcomes. Let us hope that this Commission of Inquiry will provide the state government with the template to effectively tackling this menace; discourage government from attacking/hounding/harassing the very persons who have been at the forefront of providing much needed succour to these children at a time when no one cared to listen or address their plight; call its attack dogs and other agents out to do bodily harm to Sam Itauma to order; partner with CRARN and other rehabilitative agencies in the state to protect and provide much needed succour for these severely abused children; reorganize the government agency/ministry saddled with the responsibility of caring for victims such as these; provide adequate funding for social welfare purposes (it was very embarrassing when top government officials disclosed before the commission that there was no budget to cater to the 170 children in its custody); get the Justice Ministry up to speed in enforcing the Childs Rights Law because even as the Commission is still sitting, we are reading of ongoing cases where innocent children are being attacked, maimed, tortured and/or killed upon being branded witches. Let us hope its recommendations shall be comprehensive, bold and even hold various persons in and out of government culpable for their roles in this unfortunate saga.
Ufot Inyang
