Police: Stop Harassment and Intimidation of Ubani and Family

By Leo Igwe

The Advocacy for Alleged Witches (AfAW) urges the Nigeria Police to stop harassing Mr. Obioma Ubani and the family. AfAW has been informed that police officers from the Zonal Headquarters in Umuahia went to arrest Mr. Ubani on August 19 2021. The officers did not meet Mr. Ubani. They went to meet the wife at a local market. The police officers asked her to collect a letter inviting the husband for questioning at the police station, but she declined. The police returned in the evening and tried to arrest the wife, but she fled and went into hiding.

Some family members accused Ubani of killing a relative through witchcraft and subsequently banished him. The video of Mr. Ubani being disgraced and banished from his community circulated on social media. His accusers threatened to murder him if they found him in the village. Mr. Ubani is currently in exile in Enugu state. From his exile, he has been fighting to realize justice and to safely return to his community, Amuda Isuochi in Abia state. Ubani reported the case to the police in Umuahia, but the investigation dragged on for some time. The police could not make any arrests. And at some point, Ubani took the matter to court, where it is currently being adjudicated. Courts are on vacation. The court will be hearing the matter on October 4, 2021. While the case is pending in court, the defendants sent a petition to the Inspector General of Police(IGP) asking the IGP to investigate Mr. Ubani for murder, manslaughter, and other alleged offenses. The IG sent the case to the AIG in Umuahia for investigation. The petition is the second on the same matter with the police in Umuahia. The first Investigative Police Officer (IPO) claimed not to be aware of the other petition. The second IPO also feigned ignorance of the earlier petition, including the fact that the case was pending in court. Ubani’s wife and other relatives are currently in hiding. They fear for their lives and safety. They fear that the police would come to arrest and detain them at any moment.

AfAW enjoins the police to desist from any further harassment and intimidation of Mr. Ubani and his relatives. The police should not allow themselves to be distracted by frivolous petitions. They should take measures to bring those who accused and banished Ubani from his community to justice. Those who petitioned and asked that Ubani be investigated for murder are trying to evade justice. They are trying to ensure that justice is delayed and denied. The police shouldallow this to happen. Ubani was accused of killing somebody through magic. Such allegation has no basis in the Nigerian law and the constitution. A village mob attacked Mr. Ubani and looted his apartment. Ubani and his family need justice and protection, not harassment and intimidation, from the police.

Leo Igwe directs Advocacy for Alleged Witches (AfAW). AfAW campaigns to defend, support, and protect victims of witch persecution. It works to end witchcraft accusations and witch hunts in Africa by 2030

Leo Igwe

Leo Igwe (born July 26, 1970) is a Nigerian human rights advocate and humanist. Igwe is a former Western and Southern African representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, and has specialized in campaigning against and documenting the impacts of child witchcraft accusations. He holds a Ph.D from the Bayreuth International School of African Studies at the University of Bayreuth in Germany, having earned a graduate degree in Philosophy from the University of Calabar in Nigeria. Igwe’s human rights advocacy has brought him into conflict with high-profile witchcraft believers, such as Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries, because of his criticism of what he describes as their role in the violence and child abandonment that sometimes result from accusations of witchcraft. His human rights fieldwork has led to his arrest on several occasions in Nigeria. Igwe has held leadership roles in the Nigerian Humanist Movement, Atheist Alliance International, and the Center For Inquiry—Nigeria. In 2012, Igwe was appointed as a Research Fellow of the James Randi Educational Foundation, where he continues working toward the goal of responding to what he sees as the deleterious effects of superstition, advancing skepticism throughout Africa and around the world. In 2014, Igwe was chosen as a laureate of the International Academy of Humanism and in 2017 received the Distinguished Services to Humanism Award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union. Igwe was raised in southeastern Nigeria, and describes his household as being strictly Catholic in the midst of a “highly superstitious community,” according to an interview in the Gold Coast Bulletin.[1] At age twelve, Igwe entered the seminary, beginning to study for the Catholic priesthood, but later was confused by conflicting beliefs between Christian theology and the beliefs in witches and wizards that are “entrenched in Nigerian society.”[1] After a period of research and internal conflict due to doubts about the “odd blend of tribalism and fundamentalist Christianity he believes is stunting African development,” a 24-year-old Igwe resigned from the seminary and relocated to Ibadan, Nigeria