The Advocacy for Alleged Witches(AfAW) works and campaigns to acknowledge the efforts and contributions of brave women and men to finish witch persecution of their communities. The advocate of the yr 2022 award goes to Ms. Egeh Ebe Ukara from Cross River state in Southern Nigeria. Ms. Ukara has been instrumental in rescuing and rehabilitating alleged witches in her group, Akamkpa and its environs. The AfAW salutes her braveness, sacrifice, and selfless service. Through the years, she has labored carefully with AfAW’s accomplice group, the Fundamental Rights Counsel Initiative (BRCI) to assist and defend people who’ve been accused of witchcraft. She has engaged in public training and enlightenment of witchcraft believers in her group. Ms Ukara has reported many instances of witch persecution and used her assets to make sure the protection of the accused. I didn’t know this brave girl till 2020. I used to be having dinner with the director of the BRCI, Barr James Ibor after a recording of Funmi Iyanda’s Public Eye episode on youngster witches in Lagos. Barr Ibor’s cellphone rang. As he was talking on the cellphone, he appeared visibly apprehensive. He later handed the cellphone on to me. He urged me to take care of the caller.
The caller was somebody that I later got here to know as Ms. Ukara. She was asking for some pressing help to save lots of the lifetime of an alleged witch. Some folks accused a girl in her neighborhood of witchcraft. They kidnapped the lady and took her to a close-by bush threatening to kill her. She referred to as asking for assist and intervention to save lots of the lifetime of the lady earlier than her abductors would homicide her as was normally the case within the space. She offered some contacts of household and group heads whom we referred to as and urged to help. The lady was finally rescued from her abductors. She sustained accidents from beatings and assault by her abductors. Ms. Ukara helped in relocating the lady to a spot of security and in caring for her fundamental wants whereas the case was being resolved. With out Ms. Ukara’s intervention and assist, this girl’s abductors would have disappeared and murdered her. In the midst of defending and defending the lady, Ms. Ukara suffered threats and intimidation. However she by no means relented. The case was charged to courtroom and on a specific event, one of many defendants noticed her on the courtroom premises and spat at her.
In recognition of all that she has endured rescuing and supporting this girl and different alleged witches in her group, the AfAW has awarded her the Advocate of the Yr. The AfAW appreciates the contributions and heroic efforts that she has made to the rescue, safety, and rehabilitation of alleged witches in her group.
The Advocacy for Alleged Witches will proceed to shine the sunshine on the initiatives of all advocates as a result of with out the contributions of brave women and men like Ms. Ukara many alleged witches could be useless, and witch persecutions wouldn’t finish. The AfAW hopes that this award would encourage different advocates to be actively concerned in resisting witch hunters and witch persecutors within the communities. Alleged witches are harmless. Their torture and killing are crimes in opposition to womanity and humanity. No one ought to stand by and watch as an alleged witch is attacked and killed. Folks ought to endeavor to report or alert the AfAW and native authorities on any case of witch persecution. On the AfAW’s decade of activism enters its third yr, we urge each one to be vigilante. The yr 2023 presents one other alternative to beat again the tide of witch persecution, and notice a witch-hunting-free Africa. Each Nigerian, each African, ought to develop into an advocate in opposition to witchcraft allegations and witch persecution within the communities. We want folks like Ms. Ukara in each household, and group throughout Nigeria, and Africa. Congratulations, Ms Ukara!
Leo Igwe directs the Advocacy for Alleged Witches
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