The Akwa Ibom Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Witchcraft Accusations and Child Abuses yesterday concluded its sitting in London, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
The commission was established in November 2010 by the state governor, Godswill Akpabio, with a mandate to investigate the extent of child witchcraft accusations in the state and evolve recommendations.
Ekpeyong Ntekim, the state’s Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, who spoke during the sitting in London, said the commission had obtained oral evidences from a UK-based child rights NGO, Stepping Stone Nigeria.
He said that the commission could not sit in Nigeria to receive evidences “due to some security reasons”. Mr Ntekim listed the mandate of the commission to include determining the veracity of the allegations of witchcraft against children and the infliction of cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment on such children.
He said the commission would also examine the allegations that children in the state were stigmatised, threatened, tortured or killed on the grounds of being witches and wizards.
The commission, he added, would determine the number of children abused or killed on account of such allegations and the locations and persons involved in such abuses.
Also speaking, Emilie Secker, the Advocacy Programme Officer of Stepping Stone Nigeria, said the organisation had already submitted an 800-page dossier of evidence detailing the ways children’s’ rights were abused after being accused of witchcraft.