Stigmatisation: Groups Adopt Town Hall Meetings

Two NGOs, Young Humanistas Network and Child Rights
Rehabilitation Network,  have adopted the
use of town hall meetings in their advocacy against stigmatisation of children
accused of witchcraft.

Project Coordinator, Mr. Ayo Ojedokun, said in Ibaka, Akwa
Ibom State that community involvement was crucial to stamping out the menace of
child witch syndrome.

Ojedokun noted that the prevalence of child witch accusation
was high in Ibaka,  Mbo Local Government
area in southern Akwa Ibom.

He said that the NGOs had enlisted the support of community
and traditional leaders, faith-based organisations in the campaign to protect
children from the stigma associated with branding them as witches.

In his remarks, Mr. Umoh Umoh, an official of Child Rights
and Rehabilitation Network noted that the Akwa Ibom Government had outlawed
child witch stigmatisation.

According to him, the Child Rights Law of Akwa Ibom
stipulates a 10-year jail term or N500,000 fine or both for calling any child a
witch.

Umoh added that two parents were convicted in Uyo and Eket
last week for accusing their children of witchcraft.

In her contribution, Mrs. Hannah Etefit, a women leader in
Ibaka community attributed the high rate of child abandonment in the area to
extreme poverty.