Nigeria’s Witch Hunt Crisis: Dr. Leo Igwe on Justice Failures and 2026 Reform Plans

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/12/08

Dr. Leo Igwe is a Nigerian human rights advocate and founder of the Advocacy for Alleged Witches (AfAW), an organization dedicated to protecting individuals accused of witchcraft across Nigeria and West Africa. With a doctorate in religious studies from the University of Bayreuth, Igwe has spent decades challenging harmful traditional practices, defending vulnerable communities, and pressing state institutions to uphold the rule of law. His work combines field intervention, legal advocacy, and public education to counter superstition-driven violence. Igwe remains one of Africa’s leading voices confronting witchcraft-related abuse and advancing evidence-based, rights-focused responses to cultural and social harms.

In this in-depth conversation, Scott Douglas Jacobsen speaks with Dr. Igwe about the systemic failures enabling witchcraft-related abuse across Nigeria. Igwe details how compromised policing, institutional inaction, and deep-rooted supernatural beliefs leave vulnerable people unprotected. He recounts cases in Bayelsa, Ebonyi, and Adamawa—highlighting police corruption, stalled prosecutions, and the emotional and physical toll on victims. Igwe outlines AfAW’s expanding interventions, growing partnerships, and the urgent need to pressure justice institutions. He emphasizes that witch-hunting persists when social support collapses and explains why 2026 must focus on judicial reform to safeguard accused individuals and restore accountability.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: For the year in review, why is the big focus this year on those who have been accused, specifically the advocacy for them and the accountability of those who have caused harm? There is an element of justice and reprieve for victims. Could you repeat that? What is the focus looking forward to in 2026? Why is that the focus for 2026, given the events of 2025?

Dr. Leo Igwe: Every year, we ask ourselves whether we have succeeded or failed. Witch hunting results from societal failure. It occurs when society fails in its moral and legal duties to the accused. We have been trying to identify which institutions within society are failing. We found that the justice system—the institutions responsible for delivering justice to the accused—is failing. Our police system is an example.

We have a police system where officers are often motivated by money. If you bribe them or “mobilize” them, as they say in Nigeria, that is when they do their work. Police officers may focus on how much they can make from a particular complaint rather than on justice or on doing their actual duties.

The people who are often accused are poor, elderly individuals who barely survive. They cannot afford to bribe the police. They cannot access justice. The police system is failing them. At Advocacy for Alleged Witches, we want to identify these gaps and address them. It is not enough to say something is not working; we must ask how to make it work.

We now work with the police and help the accused report their cases. We pay to bring police officers to these communities and to have arrests made. Even with this support, the police are often reluctant to act. They keep returning to us asking for transport money, money to recharge their vehicles, or other financial requests. It becomes a money-making exercise for them. The most frustrating part is that even when we assist them, they still do not intervene effectively.

When they intervene, they sometimes arrest people, but those people can also bribe the police, and the entire process becomes stalled. We recently had a case in Bayelsa State where a police inspector, Sunday Idey, brutally assaulted his three children over allegations of witchcraft. Images of the injured children circulated on social media. They were taken to the hospital for treatment.

The Advocacy for Alleged Witches, working with Do Foundation and the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), applied to the Bayelsa State Ministry of Women’s Affairs for temporary custody of the children. The Ministry approved this application so that the children could be medically evaluated, cared for, and rehabilitated before any decision to return them to the family. An emergency shelter was arranged.

However, instead of releasing the children into this approved temporary custody, the police have not handed them over. The investigating police officer and his team have been working with relatives of the suspect to take the children away, even though the children still have bruises on their bodies, one walks with crutches, and all of them remain visibly traumatized.

Even when we had authorization for temporary custody and to care for the children, the police refused to cooperate with us. When I reached out to the Commissioner of Police in the state, he called me and began threatening me, saying I was cyber-stalking him and that he would arrest me and charge me in court. He called me a clown. At one point, he said, “I don’t even know the clown I’m talking to.” He then asked me, “Did you ask me to arrest this man? Are you the father of the children? Are you the mother of the children?” He did not understand his duties as a police officer.

When the police inspector was arrested, we feared they might have detained him merely to calm the public outcry. Our concern was that he would not be prosecuted. The way the case is going now is precisely what we feared. Nobody is hearing anything about it. We learned that they said the man should undergo a psychiatric test. These are not tests that they can efficiently conduct in a police cell or arrange without proper facilities. From there, the case will die a natural death. This has been one of the most challenging experiences we have had this year.

We also had a case in Ebonyi State. We worked with the accused, mobilized the police, and made arrests. But the police then released the suspect, who disappeared. The police said the parties had agreed to reconcile, hold a peace meeting, and compensate the victim. I warned the police. We told them the suspects might run away. They assured us they would not. That is precisely what happened.

We have now sent our local advocates back to the police station because the victims have returned to us saying, “My house was destroyed. I have nothing. They promised to come to the meeting and provide compensation so I could start rebuilding. Nothing has happened.” The suspects vanished. The police collected money from the accused and then walked away. This is deeply shameful, and unless it is addressed, the phenomenon will not end.

We also have a case in court in Adamawa. We pressured the Attorney General and the state judiciary. The case involves a man who murdered his daughter; she died after he tortured her because he suspected her of witchcraft. The police arrested him and his partner and remanded them. But nothing happened afterward. We started hearing rumours that they might release the man.

Eventually, the man was released from jail. They told us it was on bail, but we all suspect this is the end of the case. The man is not going to be tried. He may never serve a prison sentence or return to jail for what he did. This is the trend. As long as this trend continues, it will be difficult for us to end witch hunting in the region effectively.

That is why we have decided that next year, 2026, we will focus on the justice system. We will try to interact more with the police and help them understand our frustrations and how they have failed society and failed the accused. We will also try to engage judges. We will make efforts to organize sessions with judges and lawyers, as legal counsel is also essential in helping accused people access justice.

This is why we are focusing on this area. Witch hunting continues not only because of miscarriages of justice, trial by ordeal, or jungle justice, but also because of the failure of state institutions—institutions that are constitutionally mandated to deliver justice to citizens. These institutions are failing, and we have to draw attention to this and see what we can do to fill the gaps, to get them to rise to their duties and responsibilities to society, especially to victims of witchcraft accusations.

Jacobsen: Historically, where do you trace the origins of these types of allegations? Additionally, is it an evolution of prior forms of accusation? Because people have used many different kinds of scapegoating with violence. It does not always have to take the form of witchcraft allegations; historically, it could have been something else that later evolved into this. It seems out of the blue to those who do not live there or see the context.

Igwe: These allegations do not follow a single pattern. Many factors come together. People have offered multiple explanations, such as scapegoating or misogyny. But based on the cases we have handled, there are always elements of magical belief. Magical belief is used because some people find themselves in situations they cannot explain, and someone gives them an explanatory model they can rely on.

In a society where people freely, unquestioningly use supernatural explanations to make sense of everyday misfortune, accusations are much more likely to arise. That is why you see statements like “suffer not a witch to live” in the Bible. In Europe, the worst witch hunts occurred when the church and religious authorities held enormous power that nobody questioned.

These accusations arise from human efforts to make sense of misfortune—people seeking a reason, a cause, when they cannot accept or access a common-sense explanation convincingly.

The second factor is power relations. Some people are more vulnerable; others are stronger socio-culturally. Even those who are stronger are often insecure and fearful of losing their power. Accusations can offer them a comfortable explanation for their losses—whether death, accident, or illness. They look for a cause, and accusation becomes the tool they use.

All these accusations stem from our attempt to explain. That is the first point. The second is that we want not only an explanation, but also someone to assign responsibility or causation to, because of the way we think. When something happens, the immediate question becomes: “Where is it coming from?” Then, “Who is responsible?” Once someone is identified—rightly or wrongly—people feel calmer.

Whether informed or not, educated or not, people want an explanation that calms them and convinces them. And when that explanation is provided, they want to act on it. They want to eliminate what they believe is the source of their misfortune. Knowing who is responsible is not enough; removing that person is seen as eliminating the misfortune.

This is why, whenever the economy is bad and people are struggling, they say, “Someone has taken my destiny.” “Someone has exchanged their destiny for mine.” Then they identify a person and decide that eliminating that person will restore what they lost.

But this happens in an environment where structures for material and social support do not exist. There is no robust social welfare system. These explanations fill the gap. These actions fill the gap. As we have discussed, the police system is compromised. The government does not care. In Bayelsa State, we have been writing appeals to the governor and the governor’s wife to protect the children. Nothing happens.

When institutions fail, they create a gap. There is no vacuum. Whenever there is a problem, there is no vacuum in explanation. If a vacuum appears, people fill it with anything. Even a ridiculous or unconvincing explanation will do. That is why people say spirits cause illness, gods cause misfortune, and ancestors cause accidents. People do not want to accept that they do not understand what is happening. They fill the vacuum: “The gods did it.” “The witches did it.” “The devil did it.” These explanations are always available.

If society were able to address the fundamentals—provide child support, free medical care, help families facing challenges, give older adults welfare packages—these explanations would no longer make sense. They only make sense in the absence of structural support for families, for children, for older people, and for people who are sick, who must bear the entire financial burden. How do they make sense of that burden? They point to someone: “This witch is responsible.” It gives them comfort, a sense of relief.

This is how I situate the origin, manifestation, and expression of these accusations.

Jacobsen: How has support from institutions—NGOs, CSOs, or federal agencies—been in Nigeria?

Igwe: The support has been erratic. It is not consistent. It is not guaranteed. There are times when we receive support, and sometimes only for a short while. In one state, we may get cooperation; in another, they pay no attention. For example, in Bayelsa State, the National Human Rights Commission has not responded to me at all. They have not been supportive. Instead, it is FIDA and another NGO, DoFoundation, that have worked very well with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.

In some other states, you can write to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and receive no cooperation. The situation varies. Sometimes we have cooperation from the National Human Rights Commission. Sometimes we have support from both the Human Rights Commission and FIDA, as well as some CSOs. But in another state, the response takes an entirely different trajectory. There is no consistency from one state to another.

What we do is reach out to all the stakeholders. Sometimes they stand with us, and we can intervene effectively. As I said, in Bayelsa State, only the police failed us. The Ministry of Women’s Affairs cooperated. FIDA cooperated. Even the Nigerian Bar Association’s state chapter was cooperative. But the Commissioner of Police vehemently refused to cooperate for reasons we still do not understand. We were there to help the children. The children had already been harmed. The responsible thing to do was not to hand them back to relatives carelessly, without first checking whether those relatives were able or willing to care for them. That was the gap we wanted to fill.

So, support from state and non-state actors is not readily available to us. In one state, we may have strong support from certain institutions, while in another, the situation is entirely different. We work with whichever institutions cooperate with us. The most important thing is to rehabilitate the accused, to intervene, to support them, to empower them, and to ensure they are in a position not only to dispel the accusation but to avoid suffering such harm again. We also want to send the message that if people make such accusations, there will be organizations knocking at their doors—a coalition ready to ask questions and hold them accountable.

Jacobsen: How are things with Dominic in Benue State?

Igwe: Dominic is doing well. He is coordinating some of our interventions there. One of the victims we supported is continuing his education, and Dominic is monitoring his progress. We also have a case in court, and Dominic is overseeing that as well. This month he will be going to Enugu. Someone there did a documentary on witch hunts that included sections on AfAW’s campaigns.

He will be at a film festival where the documentary will be screened. There will be a panel discussion on the topic. He will be travelling to Enugu at the end of this month to represent us. He also coordinates interventions in other states—Kano, Adamawa, Benue, Kogi, and several others in the region. He keeps track of the accused, supports them as much as we can, and follows up on their needs and the challenges they face. He has been a very effective advocate. We are working hard to support him even more going forward.

Jacobsen: What else? What are some of the highlights for the yearly report—the overview?

Igwe: Part of the highlights this year is that we have had more events than in any previous year. We have seen more cooperation from NGOs across the country than in the past. We had a very successful series of events. In previous years, such as last year, we had just one event for the World Day Against Witch Hunts. But this year we had a series of about four events in different places. They brought together many groups and NGOs that now look to our leadership—the leadership of AfAW—for guidance on how to intervene and manage cases.

It is overwhelming because we are receiving more cases than we can fully manage, but we have to be present. When we cannot provide material support, we provide psychological support. When we cannot offer directly, we provide indirectly. What we have seen this year is significant growth in the number of organizations that look to us for leadership and support. Many organizations came together across various states for the World Day Against Witch Hunts.

We have also made significant interventions in many states to support victims. We hope this continues in the year ahead.

Jacobsen: Leo, thank you very much for your time today. 

Igwe: Nice to talk to you again. We will be in touch.

Jacobsen: Take care.

Last updated May 3, 2025. These terms govern all In-Sight Publishing content—past, present, and future—and supersede any prior notices.  In-Sight Publishing by Scott  Douglas  Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons BY‑NC‑ND 4.0; © In-Sight Publishing by Scott  Douglas  Jacobsen 2012–Present. All trademarks, performances, databases & branding are owned by their rights holders; no use without permission. Unauthorized copying, modification, framing or public communication is prohibited. External links are not endorsed. Cookies & tracking require consent, and data processing complies with PIPEDA & GDPR; no data from children < 13 (COPPA). Content meets WCAG 2.1 AA under the Accessible Canada Act & is preserved in open archival formats with backups. Excerpts & links require full credit & hyperlink; limited quoting under fair-dealing & fair-use. All content is informational; no liability for errors or omissions: Feedback welcome, and verified errors corrected promptly. For permissions or DMCA notices, email: scott.jacobsen2025@gmail.com. Site use is governed by BC laws; content is “as‑is,” liability limited, users indemnify us; moral, performers’ & database sui generis rights reserved.