YHN/CRARN arrests another parent for stigmatization and abandonment

On 15th March 2012 the father of Daniel Akpan Friday, Mr Friday Daniel,was arrested by the Eket divisional police based on YHN/CRARN SCRIP Project petition against him. He was arrested for child stigmatization as witch and consequent abandonment of same child, Master Daniel Akpan Friday. During investigation by the police Mr Friday Akpan told the IPO in the presence of his lawyer that his son is "sick". When the IPO insist on the type of sickness, he said the boy is a witch (and possessed) and that he took him to one prophetess for deliverance by December 2011 and since then he has not seen Daniel again. He also claimed to be surprised for police to arrest him.



The police officer ordered Mr Friday Akpan to produce the prophetess on Wednesday 28th March 2012 at 8:00 am prompts for further investigation.
On 28/03/2012 Mr Friday Akpan could not provide the prophetess for investigation and he was given up to Tuesday 3/04/2012 to come with the prophetess for interview with the DPO, he was granted bail after staying less than 24hrs in the police detention.

YHN/CRARN visits reconciled alleged childwitches

As part of efforts to monitor the welfare of alleged childwitches, YHN/CRARN team led by the Project Manager, Mr Ayo Ojedokun visited reconciled alleged childwitches within Oron land, Esit Eket and Eket in the month of March.



Ten reconciled children were visited. We asked questions bordering on their welfare, feeding, schooling, peoples' attitude towards them, among others.



A get-together/reunification if fixed for May, 2012.