The Devil’s Scapegoats: An Anatomy of the Child Witchcraft Moral Panic in Southern Nigeria

Executive Summary

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the moral panic surrounding child witchcraft accusations in the southern Nigerian states of Akwa Ibom and Cross River, a human rights crisis that erupted in the 1990s and peaked in the 2000s. An estimated 15,000 children in these two states were branded as witches, leading to a campaign of horrific abuse, torture, abandonment, and murder. This phenomenon was not the resurgence of an ancient tradition but a distinctly modern crisis, born from a confluence of severe socio-economic distress and the rise of a new, commercialized Pentecostal theology that provided a supernatural explanation for earthly suffering.

The primary drivers of the panic were multifaceted. Pervasive poverty, high unemployment, and the social fragmentation caused by rapid urbanization and the HIV/AIDS pandemic created a landscape of desperation. Into this void stepped a burgeoning movement of charismatic pastors who preached a doctrine of spiritual warfare, attributing all misfortune to the work of demons and their human agents.

This belief system was weaponized and monetized, creating a predatory spiritual economy where “prophets” identified child witches and sold costly and violent “deliverance” services to desperate families. This narrative was powerfully amplified by the Nigerian film industry, Nollywood, most notably through the 1999 film “End of the Wicked” by evangelist Helen Ukpabio, which provided a terrifying and widely accepted visual script for the child witch phenomenon.

Children accused of witchcraft were subjected to unimaginable cruelty, often at the hands of their own families. The abuse included beatings, starvation, mutilation with acid or fire, and forced ingestion of poison. Many were killed, while thousands were abandoned to the streets, where they faced a secondary cycle of victimization, including sexual exploitation and trafficking. The accusation functions as a form of social annihilation, stripping a child of their identity, family, and community, and inflicting lifelong psychological trauma and social stigma.

The response from the state was defined by systemic failure and impunity. Despite the passage of the federal Child’s Right Act in 2003 and its domestication in Akwa Ibom in 2008, which specifically criminalized witch-branding, enforcement has been virtually non-existent. This failure is attributable to a combination of official denial at the highest levels of state government, a lack of political will, and the pervasive influence of superstitious beliefs within the law enforcement and judicial systems.

In this vacuum of state protection, a small number of civil society organizations (CSOs), primarily the Child’s Right and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN) and Stepping Stones Nigeria (now Safe Child Africa), emerged as frontline responders. They provided rescue, shelter, and rehabilitation for thousands of children and led advocacy efforts that brought the crisis to national and international attention, often at great personal risk.

This report concludes with a series of recommendations aimed at dismantling the ecosystem that perpetuates this abuse. These include the urgent need for robust law enforcement, comprehensive public education campaigns to counter superstitious narratives, regulation of religious bodies that incite violence, long-term state support for survivor rehabilitation, and a formal commission of inquiry to ensure accountability for the primary architects of the moral panic. Addressing this crisis requires a multi-sectoral commitment to upholding the rule of law, promoting scientific literacy, and prioritizing the fundamental human rights of every child.

Section 1: The Emergence of a Modern Witch-Hunt

The wave of violence against children in Akwa Ibom and Cross River states that began in the 1990s represents a significant and terrifying chapter in the global history of moral panics. It was characterized by a radical departure from historical patterns of witchcraft accusation, a scale of brutality that shocked the international community, and a deeply personal betrayal, as the accusers were most often those entrusted with a child’s care. Understanding this crisis requires framing it not as a continuation of timeless tradition, but as a distinctly modern phenomenon, a catastrophic social pathology fueled by contemporary anxieties and pressures.

1.1 A New Demonic Figure: The Shift from Elder to Child

The stigmatization of children as witches in the Niger Delta region is a recent development that exploded with alarming speed in the 1990s. Historically, within this region and across many Sub-Saharan African societies, witchcraft accusations were a phenomenon primarily directed at the elderly, especially women, as well as other socially marginalized groups such as the disabled. This traditional pattern, while itself a source of significant human rights abuse, was rooted in different social dynamics, often related to inheritance disputes, social jealousies, or the perceived power of elder women within community structures.  

The shift that occurred in the late 20th century was profound. The focus of communal fear and blame pivoted dramatically towards the most vulnerable and defenseless segment of the population: children. This phenomenon is explicitly described by researchers as “relatively new” , distinguishing it from the historical witch-hunts of 17th-century Europe or colonial Africa. While European witch trials did sometimes involve children as accusers or, more rarely, as the accused, the systematic targeting of thousands of children as the primary agents of demonic evil, as seen in southern Nigeria, is largely unprecedented in written history.  

This analytical distinction is critical. The crisis cannot be dismissed as an immutable facet of “African tradition.” Instead, its modernity is the key to understanding its origins and drivers. The emergence of the “child witch” as a central demonic figure in the popular imagination signals a severe breakdown of traditional social safety nets and kinship obligations. It points to a society grappling with new and overwhelming pressures for which old explanations no longer suffice. The child, once the symbol of the future and the recipient of communal protection, was recast as an insidious internal enemy, a scapegoat for the failures and anxieties of a world in tumultuous transition.

1.2 The Scale of the Atrocity: Quantifying a Human Rights Crisis

The sheer scale of the moral panic in Akwa Ibom and Cross River is staggering. Multiple independent reports from aid groups, human rights organizations, and international media outlets converge on a chilling estimate: approximately 15,000 children were branded as witches in these two states alone. This figure represents a mass traumatization event, a generation of children subjected to some of the most extreme forms of violence imaginable.  

The catalogue of documented abuses is a testament to the depths of the panic. The violence was not random or incidental; it was systematic, intimate, and aimed at torturing a confession out of the child or eradicating the perceived evil within them. The methods were horrific and varied:

• Extreme Physical Torture: Children and even babies were subjected to unimaginable pain. Documented cases include having nails driven into their heads , being systematically beaten with sticks and wires, sometimes while tied and hung from the roof of a house , and being set on fire.  
• Chemical and Corrosive Attacks: The use of corrosive substances was common. Children had acid poured over their bodies, causing permanent scarring and disfigurement. Others were forced to drink hazardous substances like cement, gasoline, or poisonous concoctions in a misguided attempt to purge the witchcraft.  
• Systematic Deprivation and Neglect: Beyond active torture, children were subjected to slow, agonizing abuse through starvation and deliberate neglect.  
• Murder and Attempted Murder: The ultimate goal was often the child’s death. Many were poisoned or buried alive. The crisis produced figures like the self-proclaimed “Bishop” in Akwa Ibom, who was arrested in 2008 after bragging that he had personally killed 110 “child witches,” chillingly claiming he killed the “witch inside them” but not the children themselves.  

Once accused and tortured, the vast majority of surviving children were abandoned, cast out by their families to fend for themselves on the streets, where they faced further abuse and exploitation. This combination of intimate violence followed by total abandonment defines the unique cruelty of this crisis.  

1.3 The Anatomy of an Accusation: Profile of the Accused and Accuser

The process of accusation was not an abstract community phenomenon; it was deeply personal, typically originating within the child’s most intimate circle. Research consistently identifies the primary accusers as “intimate others”—parents, step-parents, aunts, uncles, and neighbors. This represents a fundamental betrayal of the duty of care and protection, turning the family home from a sanctuary into a site of terror.  

The triggers for an accusation were almost always linked to misfortune, hardship, or deviation from perceived norms. In a society with limited access to scientific explanations for life’s difficulties, witchcraft provided a convenient and all-encompassing causal framework. Any negative event, whether personal or communal, could be attributed to the malevolent influence of a witch in the midst. Common triggers included:  

• Economic Hardship: A failing business, loss of employment, or persistent poverty.  
• Health and Mortality: The death of a family member, a sudden or chronic illness, or a physical disability.  
• Social and Familial Conflict: Marital problems or other disputes within the family.  

Children became the preferred targets because of their inherent vulnerability. They lacked the social power, physical strength, and verbal capacity to defend themselves against accusations from adults. Certain characteristics made a child particularly susceptible to being branded a witch:

• Orphans and Step-children: Children who had lost one or both parents were especially at risk. The HIV/AIDS pandemic, which created a large cohort of orphans, was a significant contributing factor. These children often lacked a dedicated protector within the extended family and could be seen as an economic burden.  
• Children with Disabilities or Illnesses: Any physical or mental disability, chronic illness like epilepsy, or even recurring ailments like jaundice or red-eye could be interpreted as a sign of witchcraft.  
• Children with “Difficult” or Unusual Traits: Behaviors such as stubbornness, sleepwalking, persistent bed-wetting, or having frequent nightmares were seen as evidence of demonic influence. Paradoxically, even being particularly intelligent or gifted could mark a child as different and therefore suspicious.  

The logic of the accusation was self-fulfilling. Once labeled, a child’s natural reactions to fear and abuse—aggression, withdrawal, or crying—were interpreted as further proof of their demonic nature, justifying even greater violence.  

The timeline of the crisis reveals a disturbing pattern of escalating violence, followed by a slow and often inadequate response from authorities. The moral panic was ignited and fueled by specific cultural products and religious movements long before any meaningful legislative or social action was taken to protect the victims.

Section 2: The Crucible of Belief: Drivers of the Moral Panic

The moral panic that engulfed Akwa Ibom and Cross River was not a spontaneous eruption of superstition. It was ignited and sustained by a potent combination of factors: a foundation of severe socio-economic distress that made communities desperate for explanations; a powerful and predatory religious movement that supplied those explanations in a marketable form; and a sophisticated media apparatus that disseminated the toxic narrative to a mass audience. This “perfect storm” transformed latent folk beliefs into an active, violent, and commercialized witch-hunt.

2.1 The Socio-Economic Tinderbox: Poverty as a Pretext

At the root of the crisis lay a landscape of profound social and economic despair. The Niger Delta region, despite its oil wealth, has been characterized by pervasive poverty, high unemployment, environmental degradation, and systemic economic decline. This environment of chronic hardship created a fertile ground for scapegoating. When rational avenues for progress are blocked and legitimate institutions fail to provide relief, communities often turn to supernatural explanations for their suffering. The belief in witchcraft offers a simple, albeit destructive, answer to complex problems: our suffering is not the result of systemic failure, but the deliberate malevolent act of an enemy within.  

Several specific socio-economic pressures directly fueled the accusations against children:

• Rapid Urbanization and Social Fragmentation: The movement of populations to cities eroded traditional extended family structures and community support systems. This left families more isolated and less resilient in times of crisis, making them more susceptible to extreme beliefs.  
• The HIV/AIDS Pandemic: The pandemic had a devastating impact, leading to a significant increase in the number of orphans. These children, often cared for by struggling relatives, were particularly vulnerable. An accusation of witchcraft could serve as a socially sanctioned pretext for a family to shed the economic burden of caring for an orphaned child.  
• Deterioration of Public Services: The collapse of education and healthcare systems meant that communities lacked access to scientific information about disease and child development. This ignorance paved the way for medical conditions like epilepsy or psychological issues to be misinterpreted as signs of demonic possession.  

In this context, a witchcraft accusation against a child became a multi-purpose tool. It provided a psychological release valve for a community’s anxieties, a supernatural explanation for persistent misfortune, and a cruel but effective mechanism for resource management within impoverished households. The child witch was not just a spiritual threat, but an economic one, and their expulsion was framed as an act of communal self-preservation.

2.2 The Pentecostal Catalyst: Commercializing Fear and Deliverance

While socio-economic hardship provided the tinder, the spark that ignited the fire was the explosive growth of a particular brand of neo-Pentecostal Christianity in Nigeria, beginning in the 1990s. The Niger Delta became a global hotspot for this movement, with more places of worship per square mile than anywhere else on earth. This was not a monolithic movement, but its most influential and dangerous elements promoted a theology that was perfectly suited to generating a witch-hunt.  

The core of this theology is a worldview of constant spiritual warfare. It posits that there are no natural causes for misfortune—no accidents, no coincidences, no purely medical illnesses. Every negative event, from unemployment to a traffic accident to a disease, is a direct attack from Satan or his demonic servants, who operate through human agents, namely witches and wizards. This belief system creates a permanent state of fear and an urgent, ongoing need to identify and neutralize the spiritual enemies responsible for one’s suffering.  

Crucially, this spiritual warfare theology became the foundation for a highly lucrative business model. A new class of charismatic pastors and self-proclaimed “prophets” positioned themselves as spiritual entrepreneurs who could not only diagnose the source of demonic affliction but also sell the cure: “deliverance”. This process created a predatory spiritual economy with a clear, perverse logic:  

1. Create Demand: Through sermons and media, relentlessly preach that witchcraft is the root of all problems, stoking fear and paranoia within the congregation and wider community.
2. Identify the Product: During church services or private consultations, the pastor uses “visions” or “prophecies” to identify a child as a witch, often in front of the entire community. Even if a family already harbors suspicions, the pastor’s public confirmation acts as the critical “tipping point,” legitimizing the accusation and making violence almost inevitable.  
3. Sell the Solution: The pastor then offers to perform a “deliverance” or “exorcism” ritual to cast out the demon. These services are not free; they come at a high price, forcing desperate families to pay exorbitant fees for the violent “treatment” of their own children.  

These deliverance rituals are themselves a form of severe abuse, often involving starvation, beatings, and the forced ingestion of dangerous substances, all designed to torture a confession from the child. The pastors are described not as misguided believers, but as “opportunists” who have “cashed in on the situation” and “make money from the fear of parents”. This economic dimension explains the intensity and persistence of the phenomenon. It was not just a crisis of faith; it was a deadly business enterprise where vulnerable children were the primary commodity.  

2.3 Manufacturing a Monster: The Influence of Helen Ukpabio and “End of the Wicked”

No single individual did more to create, standardize, and propagate the child witch narrative than the evangelist Helen Ukpabio. As the founder of the 150-branch Liberty Gospel Church and the head of Liberty Films, she built a powerful media empire dedicated to promoting her brand of spiritual warfare theology. Her influence was a primary driver in transforming latent superstitious beliefs into a full-blown moral panic.  

Her most potent weapon was the 1999 Nollywood film, “End of the Wicked.” This film was not merely a reflection of existing beliefs; it was an act of cultural engineering. It provided a graphic, terrifying, and easily digestible visual script for the previously abstract concept of a child witch. The film depicted children being inducted into demonic covens, eating human flesh, and using supernatural powers to destroy their families and communities.

Crucially, Ukpabio and her organization marketed the film not as a work of fiction, but as a documentary-style “truth” and a dire warning to communities about the dangers lurking in their midst. Its release is widely cited as a direct catalyst for the explosion in accusations and violence that followed.  

Ukpabio’s influence extended to print. In her book, Unveiling the Mysteries of Witchcraft, she provided a checklist for identifying child witches, effectively pathologizing normal childhood. She wrote that “a child under the age of two that cries at night and has poor health is ‘an agent of Satan'”. This dangerous pseudo-theology gave parents and pastors a divine justification for interpreting common childhood ailments—fever, crying, poor appetite—as definitive proof of demonic possession.  

The impact of Ukpabio’s work cannot be overstated. She took a vague and amorphous fear and gave it a face, a narrative, and a set of identifiable characteristics. Her films and writings acted as a training manual for witch-finders across the region, standardizing the mythology of the child witch and amplifying it on a mass scale through the powerful distribution network of Nollywood and the Pentecostal church system. She did not just tap into a market for fear; she created and cornered it.

Section 3: The Consequences of Condemnation

For a child accused of witchcraft, the branding is the beginning of a descent into a world of unimaginable suffering. The accusation triggers a process of systematic dehumanization that severs every bond of family and community, inflicting deep and lasting physical and psychological wounds. It is a form of social and psychological annihilation, replacing a child’s identity with a demonic label that justifies any subsequent atrocity. The consequences are not temporary; they are lifelong, often extending into the next generation.

3.1 The Ordeal of “Deliverance”: From Accusation to Abandonment

The immediate aftermath of an accusation is a period of intense violence, often framed as a “deliverance” or “exorcism” ritual. These rituals, typically performed by a pastor or traditional healer, are not acts of spiritual healing but of brutal torture designed to force a confession. The child is subjected to extreme physical and psychological pressure. They may be starved for days, as it is believed this weakens the witch inside them. They are beaten, chained, and sometimes have their hands held over flames to extract a confession.  

Under such duress, children are forced to confess to atrocities they cannot possibly comprehend—causing the death of a relative, orchestrating a car crash, or “eating the soul” of a family member. This forced confession serves a dual purpose: it validates the pastor’s diagnosis and the family’s fears, and it breaks the child’s spirit, forcing them to internalize the demonic identity being thrust upon them. This act of psychological violence is a critical step in the dehumanization process.  

Following the “deliverance,” whether the child confesses or not, the most common outcome is abandonment. Having been officially branded as evil, the child is now seen as a source of permanent contamination and danger. Their own parents and relatives, driven by fear and the pronouncements of their pastor, cast them out of the family home.

In the cultural context of the region, where family is the paramount source of identity and security, this act of expulsion is tantamount to a death sentence. A witchcraft accusation is understood to be one of the only socially justifiable reasons for a family to refuse to care for a relative, no matter how young or vulnerable. The child is rendered socially dead, severed from all kinship ties and left utterly alone.  

3.2 Life on the Street: A Cycle of Victimization

For the thousands of children cast out of their homes, the street becomes their only refuge, a perilous environment where they face a new and relentless cycle of victimization. A 2010 report by Safe Child Africa found that a staggering 85% of street children in one area of Akwa Ibom had been driven from their homes by witchcraft accusations. These children, already traumatized by the violence inflicted by their families, are exceptionally vulnerable.  

Their daily existence is a struggle for survival. They are forced to scavenge for food from garbage dumps and live in uncompleted buildings or parks, exposed to the elements and disease. The stigma of being a “witch child” follows them, making them targets for further abuse from the wider community. They are subject to mob attacks and are often abused by authorities who should be protecting them.  

Girls are at particularly high risk of sexual exploitation. The label of “witch” strips them of social protection, making them easy prey for traffickers and predators. They are frequently subjected to rape, forced into the sex trade, and become pregnant at a young age. One 15-year-old girl named Gladys, found living at a dumpsite after being abandoned at age eight, had already given birth twice and did not know the identities of her children’s fathers. To cope with the constant trauma and hardship, many children turn to substance abuse, further endangering their health and well-being. The street, therefore, is not a place of freedom but a continuation of their persecution in a different form.  

3.3 The Enduring Scars: Lifelong Stigma and Trauma

Even for the fortunate few who are rescued and find safety in a shelter, the consequences of a witchcraft accusation are profound and enduring. The physical scars—from acid burns, machete cuts, or beatings—may heal, but the psychological wounds are far deeper and more persistent.

The label of “witch” is a lifelong stigma. It leads to permanent social exclusion and discrimination, making it incredibly difficult for survivors to reintegrate into society, attend school, or form healthy relationships. The accusation fundamentally alters how they are perceived by others and, crucially, how they perceive themselves. The experience instills a deep-seated trauma characterized by fear, anxiety, depression, and a shattered sense of self-worth.  

Some scholars have framed the phenomenon of child witchcraft as an “idiom of distress”—a culturally specific way of expressing and communicating profound psychosocial suffering. From this perspective, the child’s confession is not just a response to torture but can also be a desperate, albeit destructive, attempt to articulate their own pain and confusion in the only language their community seems to understand. The entire system—the struggling family, the fearful community, the traumatized child—is caught in a shared delusion that uses the imagery of witchcraft to voice its collective anguish.  

This trauma is not confined to one generation. The stigma is heritable. The children of survivors, particularly those born to girls who were impregnated on the street, are often automatically regarded as the children of witches. This creates a vicious, intergenerational cycle of abuse and exclusion, where the curse of the accusation is passed down, ensuring that the suffering continues long after the initial moral panic has subsided. The accusation is an indelible mark, a social poison that contaminates not only the victim’s life but also the lives of their descendants.  

Section 4: A Fractured Response: Intervention and Impunity

The response to the child witchcraft crisis in southern Nigeria was a story of stark contrasts. On one side stood a state apparatus characterized by denial, legal impotence, and at times, outright hostility towards those seeking to protect children. On the other was a small but determined coalition of civil society organizations that stepped into the breach, providing direct aid and advocacy in the face of immense danger. This dynamic created a landscape of systemic impunity, where laws existed on paper but were rendered meaningless in practice, leaving grassroots activists to perform the essential duties of child protection that the state had effectively abdicated.

4.1 Law Versus Belief: The Inefficacy of the Child Rights Act

In theory, Nigeria possessed the legal tools to combat the abuse. The federal government passed the comprehensive Child’s Right Act in 2003, domesticating the principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into national law. However, for the Act to be enforceable, each of Nigeria’s 36 states had to pass its own version.  

Following intense advocacy, culminating in a nonviolent march of accused children on the state capital, Akwa Ibom domesticated the Act in December 2008. Crucially, its version included specific provisions that criminalized the act of branding a child a witch, making it punishable by a custodial sentence of up to 10 years. Cross River State followed suit in May 2009, but its law conspicuously omitted the specific anti-witchcraft provision, leaving a critical legal loophole.  

Despite the landmark nature of the Akwa Ibom law, its impact on the ground was negligible. It is consistently described as “weakly enforced”. A decade after its passage, reports indicated that  

not a single person had been successfully prosecuted under the witch-branding clause. This represents a catastrophic failure of the rule of law. The existence of a progressive legal instrument proved to be meaningless in the face of a deeply entrenched belief system and a profound lack of political will to enforce it. The law existed as a symbol, but it offered no real protection to the children it was designed to save.  

4.2 The Architecture of Impunity: State Denial and Systemic Failure

The failure to enforce the Child Rights Act was not an accident but a product of a systemic architecture of impunity. The primary obstacle was the collision of modern law with pre-modern belief. The very individuals tasked with enforcing the law—police officers, prosecutors, and court officials—often shared the community’s belief in witchcraft. This created an insurmountable barrier to justice. Police were reluctant to investigate or make arrests, fearing they might be cursed by the accused or face a violent backlash from the community for defending a “witch”. When cases did reach the courts, they were often compromised by corruption or endless delays until the victims gave up.  

This grassroots paralysis was compounded by denial at the highest levels of power. In a now-infamous interview with CNN in August 2010, Akwa Ibom’s then-governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, publicly declared that reports of the child witchcraft crisis were “exaggerated”. This statement was not a simple misjudgment; it was a deliberate act of political damage control, aimed at protecting the state’s image rather than its children. It sent a clear message to perpetrators that they could act with impunity and signaled to law enforcement that this was not a priority.  

The state’s posture went beyond mere neglect to active hostility towards those trying to help. In January 2011, the state government arrested and arraigned Sam Ikpe-Itauma, the founder of the primary rescue organization, CRARN, on fabricated charges of fraud and “defaming the Akwa Ibom state”. This was a transparent attempt to silence a prominent critic and disrupt the one effective support system available to victims. It revealed a state apparatus that viewed human rights defenders as a greater threat than those torturing and murdering children. This combination of grassroots inaction, high-level denial, and persecution of activists created a perfect environment for the violence to continue unabated, despite the existence of a law forbidding it.  

4.3 The Frontline Responders: Civil Society in the Breach

Into the vacuum created by the state’s abdication stepped a small number of courageous and resilient civil society organizations. The effort was spearheaded by a partnership between a local Nigerian organization, the Child’s Right and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN), led by Sam Ikpe-Itauma, and an international partner, Stepping Stones Nigeria (now Safe Child Africa), founded by the British activist Gary Foxcroft. These organizations became the de facto child protection service in the region, performing the duties the government would not.  

Their work was multi-pronged and highly effective:

• Rescue and Rehabilitation: Their most critical function was providing a safe haven. CRARN established a shelter in Eket that, at its peak, housed over 300 children who had been tortured and abandoned. This center provided not just food and lodging, but also medical care, education, and psychosocial support. Since its inception, CRARN has rescued and rehabilitated more than 8,000 children, giving them a second chance at life.  
• Advocacy and Activism: They understood that direct aid was not enough; systemic change was needed. Their most notable achievement was the August 2008 march of accused children to the Governor’s House in Uyo. This powerful act of nonviolent protest, featuring children holding signs like “We are not witches,” generated immense pressure and is credited as the direct impetus for Governor Akpabio finally signing the Child Rights Law four months later.  
• Raising International Awareness: The partnership was adept at using international media to shine a global spotlight on the crisis. The award-winning documentary “Saving Africa’s Witch Children” (2008), which featured their work, was broadcast on the UK’s Channel 4 and the BBC. This exposure was instrumental in prompting reports from major international bodies like UNICEF and the UNHCR, transforming a local tragedy into a recognized international human rights issue.  

This work was carried out at tremendous personal risk. Activists received constant death threats. In July 2009, CRARN’s shelter was invaded by armed men who beat staff and children, leaving several hospitalized, in an apparent attempt to assassinate Sam Ikpe-Itauma. They also faced legal warfare from powerful figures like Helen Ukpabio, who filed lawsuits against them in an effort to intimidate and bankrupt their organizations. The CSOs were fighting a war on two fronts: against the perpetrators of the abuse and against a state and religious establishment that sought to silence them. Their persistence in the face of such opposition underscores the profound failure of the official institutions tasked with protecting children.  

Section 5: Pathways Forward: Recommendations for Systemic Change

The child witchcraft crisis in southern Nigeria is a complex problem rooted in a confluence of poverty, religious extremism, and systemic governance failure. Addressing it requires a sustained, multi-sectoral approach that moves beyond acknowledging the problem to actively dismantling the structures that permit it. The following recommendations are designed to strengthen legal protections, counter the toxic narratives that fuel the violence, prioritize the long-term recovery of survivors, and hold the architects of the moral panic accountable.

5.1 Strengthening the Legal Shield: From Law on Paper to Law in Practice

The catastrophic gap between the existence of the Child Rights Act and its enforcement is the single greatest institutional failure in this crisis. Closing this gap is the essential first step toward justice and prevention.

• Dedicated Enforcement Task Force: The federal government, in cooperation with the governments of Akwa Ibom and Cross River, should establish and fund a Special Joint Task Force. This unit, comprising specially selected and vetted officers from the Nigerian Police Force and legal experts from the Ministry of Justice, must be given a clear and singular mandate: to proactively investigate and prosecute all reported cases of child witch-branding, abuse, and abandonment under the existing provisions of the Child Rights Act and the Criminal Code.
• Compulsory Judicial and Police Training: A mandatory, continuous training program must be implemented for all police, prosecutors, and judicial officers in the affected states. This curriculum should go beyond a simple review of the law. It must include modules on child rights, the psychological impact of trauma, and the sociology of moral panics. Critically, this training must directly confront and seek to dismantle the superstitious beliefs that paralyze the justice system, emphasizing that an accusation of witchcraft is not a defense for violence but is, in itself, a criminal act.  
• State-Funded Legal Aid for Victims: The state governments must allocate specific funds to establish and support dedicated legal aid services for child victims of witchcraft accusations and their advocates. This would empower survivors and organizations like CRARN to file official complaints, pursue private prosecutions where the state fails to act, and compel police to investigate through court orders, without being deterred by financial costs or the need for pro bono assistance.  

5.2 Countering the Narrative: A Public Health Approach to Disinformation

The moral panic was fueled by a powerful and pervasive narrative of fear. This narrative must be actively and systematically countered with information and alternative explanations.

• Mass Public Education Campaigns: State and federal Ministries of Information, Health, and Education must collaborate on a large-scale, sustained public awareness campaign. Utilizing the immense reach of radio, television, and social media, this campaign should disseminate clear, accessible information in local languages that provides scientific and medical explanations for common causes of death, disease (such as epilepsy and sickle cell anemia), and disability. The campaign must explicitly frame witchcraft accusations as a harmful, illegal, and ignorant response to life’s challenges.  
• Strategic Engagement with Religious Leaders: Rather than viewing the religious community as a monolith, government and civil society must proactively engage with mainstream and moderate Christian and other religious leaders. The goal is to build a coalition of faith leaders who are willing to publicly condemn child witch-branding and develop theological counter-narratives that emphasize compassion, protection of the vulnerable, and the incompatibility of such violence with true faith.  
• Regulation of Incitement to Violence: The Nigerian Broadcasting Commission and other regulatory bodies must develop and enforce a clear framework to address religious broadcasting and media production that incites hatred and violence against children. Content that explicitly labels children as witches and promotes violent “exorcism,” such as the film “End of the Wicked,” should be classified as hate speech and incitement, and its producers and distributors held legally accountable.  

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