By Leo Igwe

The Advocacy for Alleged Witches has drawn attention to a Facebook post by John Akpan. The post featured the following text: “There was a powerful deliverance in the church on Sunday, the second of August 2026. There, I was confronted by a strong demon physically, but my God overpowered the demon. Then, on Monday, third August 2026, this bird known as a hawk came; I discovered this powerful bird on top of an avocado tree in my compound. This bird was weak, disarmed by the angels of the Lord that were on duty, as it is written in Psalm 34:7, and the Lord put the bird in our hands. Shame on you, Satan. Jesus is Lord”

A man was interviewed to explain how he caught the hawk. He said that while coming out of a gate, he saw the bird and noticed that it was weak and could not fly. He caught the hawk and removed the ten nails. He planned to show the bird to the children, saying he did not know the hawk’s mission. He claimed that they had overpowered the bird and God was in control. Both the interviewer and the interviewee claimed that the bird was on a mission and the mission had failed; the angels struck it down.

Catching the hawk was described as a spiritual manifestation of a combat with demons. They claimed someone turned into a hawk to inflict some harm, but the mission failed. The narrator, also a pastor, described the morning of the incident as wonderful, and catching the owl as an expression of god’s work. Other pastors, evangelists, and supposed men of God from the Ever Glorious Christian Church of God were at the scene. On its Facebook page, the Ever Glorious Christian Church of God describes its mission as “To propagate the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world and prepare souls for the second coming of Jesus Christ”

The Advocacy for Alleged Witches condemns the actions of these witch-hunting pastors and churches. Identifying hawks as witches or demons incarnate is mistaken. Catching or torturing hawks, owls, cats, and other supposed witch familiars is wrong. AfAW also deplores the demonization of hawks by witch-hunting pastors and churches. The association of hawks or owls with witchcraft is pervasive and lacks any basis in reason, science, or reality. It is rooted in ignorance, fear, and superstition. Like owls, hawks control the rodent population and help maintain a healthy environment. Nobody turns into a hawk to carry out harm, as these pastors claimed. Hawks fly around to express and participate in nature and fulfill their role in the ecosystem.

Such expressions have nothing to do with witchcraft or occult harm as popularly believed. As in this case, many pastors and other church leaders misinform the public by linking innocent birds with witchcraft. They incite hate, fear, and maltreatment of wildlife and other participants in the ecosystem. Pastors and other godmen and women need a reorientation to correct the misconception of hawks, owls, and cats as witch familiars and other misperceptions that motivate abuse and violation of supposed agents and perpetrators of occult harm.

Leo Igwe directs the Advocacy for Alleged Witches

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

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