Murder by prayer: When is enough, enough?

Pastors in southeast Nigeria claim illness and poverty are caused by witches who bring terrible misfortune to those around them. And those denounced as witches must be cleansed through deliverance or cast out.

But, Helen Ukpabio, founder and senior pastor of Liberty Gospel Church in Calabar, the Cross River State capital says it is all a fraudulent attempt to rip off the region.The minister of God accused Sam Ikpe-Itauma, who claims to run the NGO at Eket that houses the alleged 150 children, to have started the problem."There is a man in Eket who is creating this problem.He is Sam Ikpe-Itauma."Ukpabio equally accused Europeans of insincerity and pumping money to the wrong hands in the name of NGO.Ikpe-Itauma is said to have opened his house to a few homeless waifs he came across, and tries his best to look after them."The neighbours were not happy with me and tell me 'you are supporting witches.' This project was an accident. I saw children being abandoned and it was very worrying. I started with three children, then every day it increased, so we had to open this new place. For every five children we see on the streets, we believe one has been killed, although it could be more as neighbours turn a blind eye when a witch child disappears. It is good we have this shelter, but it is under constant attack," Ikpe-Itauma said.

"Religious leaders capitalize on the ignorance of some parents in the villages just to make some money off them," said Lucky Inyang, project coordinator for 'Stepping Stones Nigeria'."They can say your child is a witch and if you bring the child to the church we can deliver the child but eventually they don't deliver the children... The parents go back to the pastor and say, 'why is it you have not been able to deliver the child' and the pastor says 'Oh - this one has gone past deliverance - they've eaten too much flesh so you have to throw the child out.'" And most pastors charge a fee for deliverance -- anywhere from $300 to $2,000.

there will be times when God does instruct to withhold the insulin as healing is going to take place BUT too often people just do not recognize the right voice or guidance and tragedy takes place.

which is why i can say the parents should not be prosecuted but the church leadership.

the parents di dnothing wrong and should not have been prosecuted. atheists need to learn to mind their own business because their families are far worse than christian ones.