In the South Eastern Nigerian state of Akwa Ibom children and babies are being branded as evil by evangelical pastors. Thousands are being abused, abandoned and even murdered while the preachers make money out of the fear of their parents and their communities. Behind the smartly painted church doors these ‘Men of God’ make a living by ‘deliverances’ - exorcisms - for people beset by witchcraft, something seen to cause anything from divorce, disease, accidents to job losses. An exploitative situation has grown into something sinister as preachers are turning their attentions to children - naming them as witches. In a maddened state of terror, parents and whole villages turn on the child. They are burnt, poisoned, slashed, chained to trees, buried alive or simply beaten and chased off into the bush. It is estimated that around 5,000 children have been abandoned in this area since 1998 and many bodies have turned up in the rivers or in the forests. Many more are never found.
The more children a pastor declares witches, the more famous he gets and the more money he can make. Parents are asked for so much money that they will pay in instalments or perhaps sell their property.
While Nigeria’s wealth is pumped out of oil and gas fields to bypass millions of it’s poorest people, tension and poverty has delivered an opportunity for a new and terrible phenomenon being done in the name of Christianity.

To help go to www.steppingstonesnigeria.org