No Spiritual Spouses or Attacks

· The Advocacy for Alleged Witches (AfAW) asks the public to ignore a poster circulating on social media inviting people to a closed WhatsApp group session on “How to be free from spiritual spouse /attacks under 7 days”.

· The program will hold daily from March 12-15, 2024. The organisers asked participants to pay a registration fee of 150, 000 naira or an early registration fee of 130, 000 naira to the UBA account number 1025539232. The account name is Viancee Global Services. The payment starts on January 1st and closes on March 1, 2024. According to the announcer, people should send the evidence of payment to this Whatsapp number+2349071587096. Advocates have called the number to confirm this event, but the organiser is not answering calls.

· The Advocacy for Alleged Witches informs the public that this program is a scam. The public is warned not to participate in the event or patronize this fraudster and others who prey on desperate, vulnerable, and gullible folks. The Nigerian public should realize that there is nothing like spiritual spouses. This claim is utter nonsense. To have a spiritual spouse implies that there is a spiritual marriage. Is that not absurd?

· In addition, there is no evidence of spiritual attacks against any person or community. These claims are a load of deception and foolery. The notion of spiritual husbands or wives is fiction. Some self-acclaimed mischievous pastors, marabouts, diviners, and spiritualists invented these imaginaries to deceive and extort money from ignorant folks. Nigerians must resist these charlatans or rue it. These fraudsters target single men, especially single women, and make them believe that they have been unmarried because they are married to the mermaid, an ancestor or a tree. They target couples having marital issues and make them believe that their problems have been caused by their spiritual spouses. These charlatans attribute family problems, including health issues, to spiritual attacks. And as in this case, they ask the people with these ‘spiritual challenges’ to pay huge sums of money for prayers and exorcism. Many pastors and other self-styled men and women of God are notorious for instilling fears and fleecing individuals and communities in the name of delivering them from spiritual spouses or for neutralizing spiritual attacks.

· The public is warned to be vigilant and not allow these con artists to defraud them. People should report these individuals to the police or draw the attention of the Advocacy for Alleged Witches. At the AfAW, we are deeply concerned about the activities of these disgruntled elements because they wreak havoc on families, sanctify egregious abuses and destroy communities. They fuel witchcraft suspicions and accusations. They incite violence, persecution, and hunting of alleged witches in the communities. At this time of the year, members of the public should be vigilant, very vigilant.

· Leo Igwe directs the Advocacy for Alleged Witches.