Eket— Child’s Right  and Rehabilitation Network, CRARN, an non-governmental organisation, has commended the Federal Government for condemning child witch stigmatisation in the country.

The President of the group, Mr Sam Itauma, told newsmen that he was delighted with the assessment of diplomats on the country’s efforts at protecting the rights of children at a UN meeting he participated in recently.

Itauma, who runs a home for some 250 abandoned children accused of witchcraft in Eket, was a guest at a dinner organised in honour of global NGOs working for the rights of children, by the United Kingdom’s Ambassador to the UN in New York, recently.

He said that the Ambassador, Mr Philip Parham, publicly lauded the efforts of Nigeria at the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

“I felt elated as a Nigerian when such encomiums were showered on the country because of the commitment of the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development. The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Dr Idris Kuta had officially condemned the child witch branding in Nigeria at the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,” Itauma said.

The child rights activist noted that the present government in its bid to re_brand the country, based the re_branding policy on truth and emphasis on the country’s efforts at development as opposed to falsehood.

He said that it was regrettable that the a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, was quoted as saying that the child witch syndrome had not hurt any child in Nigeria.

He regretted that children were still being abused and forced into the labour in spite of the free education offer of the Akwa Ibom government.

The activist said it was unacceptable that children were still found in the high seas scooping water out of the boats and canoes for fishermen or locked up in churches for exorcism.

“What are children doing in the high sea when education is free; why are children locked up in churches when we all live in a free society? Why are children killed when the scripture quoted Jesus as saying ‘suffer not the little children to come to me?” Itauma  asked rhetorically.