Daily Independent (Lagos)
Isioma Madike
5 January 2009
interview
Helen Ukpabio, Evangelist, filmmaker and president of Liberty Gospel Church, Calabar, recently came under heavy attack by a section of the British press. Ukpabio responds to some of the allegations in this interview, saying the attack was sponsored and an attempt to smear her name and ridicule God. She spoke with ISIOMA MADIKE, Head Covers & Investigation. Excerpts:
How did God call you into His service?
Well, it is not something that somebody can really explain. I was a nurse. I didn't know that I could be called. In 1989, I had a vision that actually lasted for two weeks. And after that vision, each time I wanted to pray, I would be caught up in the spirit and the Lord would show me scenes of people and things, especially of witches and how they invaded homes and churches killing people. God said if I would discipline myself and keep myself from worldliness, He would use me to do a great work.
Is conducting deliverance for alleged witches and demon-possessed persons part of the calling?
Yes, God gave me special anointing to cast out demons from people and to deliver witches and their victims. And I have been doing this since 1992 when Liberty Gospel Church started. If Akwa Ibom now says there is no witch in their midst, good for them. As for me, I will make sure that I continue to fight witchcraft in the state until I deliver the witches. If you don't deliver a witch, the family can never be at peace. So, let us deliver the people for heaven's sake. Let us deliver the people who are witches. We should not allow sentiments to come in here, because witchcraft is real. All the native doctors are wizards, and yet Nigerian politicians are consulting them all over the land, lodge them in big hotels in Abuja and elsewhere. How on earth can you bring a witch who does not know anything and put him in Nicon Hilton and Sheraton?
You travel very wide around the world in the course of your work. When you go to preach outside Nigeria, I mean in Europe and America, do you conduct deliverance for witches?
Oh, they come out on their own and say to me, "I am a witch." Some will say I did not actually believe in witches until I saw myself doing certain things. And when you ask, "What do you do?" he would say, I do some wicked things. Sometimes, I will use my hand and hit a goat and the goat will die, then I will hear a voice saying to me, you have caused accident." Witches are everywhere. Witchcraft did not begin with Africa. It started long ago but now Africa has become a breeding ground because of superstitious beliefs.
What really is the situation in other lands?
Witchcraft in not only practised in Nigeria. When I went to North Carolina in the United States, there were very many witches. They came to me asking, "Please can you deliver me? Can you deliver me? Please deliver me." But it is worse in other African nations that don't have ministers that actually deal on those things, like Ghana and Cameroun. In Cameroun, witches follow me on the road.
To what extent do people, out of their own, come to you for deliverance from witchcraft?
This happens very often. They even come as far as my house but are always stopped at the gate. A woman from Port Harcourt came to my house in 2004. They stopped her at the gate and I told her to write what the matter was. She wrote there that she was a witch and that the husband wanted to leave her because of this. I wrote back to her, "How do you know you are a witch?" She said that she used to attend witchcraft meetings in her village. She is not from Rivers State but she lives there. I referred her to the church. I told her to attend our deliverance class after which the pastor would arrange deliverance for her. If I want to deliver them one by one like that, I would spend days doing just that. What I do is teach them in the class. I teach one day which will be announced, as that announcement is going on, people that come to the headquarters will tell them and they will come.
It is said that most churches and prayer houses beat, starve, torture and even kill those that come to them for deliverance from the craft. How do you do it in your church?
Most of them know their status such that when you say, "If you are a witch come out, you see them come in their numbers. In August, after we finished the teaching on witchcraft, we conducted deliverance and I said, "If you are a witch come and stand this way. A lot of people came out. I turned to them and prayed and delivered them. So that is what we do. But my moment of joy is always when the people come back to say "I don't attend witchcraft meeting again."
How did you come by the idea of movie production?
It is just my passion. I am preaching against witchcraft, Mammy Water spirit, false prophets and the likes. I have written books on false prophets and false religion. I have up to seven books. It was like my work was not going far and I have no money to go on television. So based on that, we started doing movies. Before now, we used to do powerful drama in our tarry nights.
There have been some negative reports about your work on the Internet of late. One version says your film; End of the Wicked promotes the tagging of children witches.
Certain persons from my state sponsor those things but they and their white collaborators will never succeed because God called and anointed me to preach deliverance to the oppressed and deliver witches in our midst. The film did not tag anybody a witch. The storyline is not even on children nor does it encourage the torture and killing of children as they claim. It only warns parents to beware of the greed in their children as greedy children who receive everything they see from other children at school or the playground can easily be contaminated. The write-ups are products of one man who suddenly said his orphanage is now a refuge home for children accused of witchcraft. He is doing that simply to collect money from people and the West to sustain himself. Unfortunately, he is telling all the lies against one who is simply doing a good job for her people and humanity as has been committed into her hand by God. The man is working with another, a white man who came to Nigeria for his master's degree but decided to dump that for money by smearing the name of a minister of God whose good work is seen by all. They collect a lot of money from government to destroy me but God who sent me is on my side.
The reports say you are one of the richest preachers in the country and Africa and that you make your money from charging exorbitant fees to deliver the witches.
I am a movie producer. So as a movie producer should I be poor? I have over 140 churches. Whoever told them that I could be poor? My wealth has just started. I write a lot of books. I produce music. So why shouldn't I be rich? So I should be wretched, I don't know what they mean by my being wealthy. What people do not like to see is your having a change of raiment. I can tell you vividly six years ago; some Pentecostal pastors were preaching that I made my church members look poor. They said that we looked poor and wretched, just because I had decided that we wouldn't look worldly, but when suddenly, they saw that I built a house, the story changed. Now people say I am the wealthiest. I thank God. Yes it takes a wealthy person to champion such a cause of delivering witchcraft without anybody paying anything. Our members contribute money for transport to our deliverance crusades. I have not charged anybody a dime since we started witchcraft deliverance some 16 years ago. We go there to deliver the people free of charge.
How many witches have you delivered so far?
Without being boastful, I have conducted deliverance for well over 20,000 people on this issue of witchcraft since the church began in 1992. This is done simply through teaching of the Word of God and prayer. We don't use anything, including anointing oil. Anointing oil was necessary when there was no Holy Spirit. With the coming of the Holy Spirit, the church has been endowed with power that can move anything.
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