Voodoo
Anambra, Voodoo By Banjo Odutola This
is the first article that I am really excited at writing. My
exhilaration is steeped in the knowledge that if Casmir Igbokwe’s
report - Okija Shrine: Who casts the first stone? is a
redoubtable one; then along with a few fellow countrymen, I am
sui generis; a part of a class that have never visited or been
attended by a Voodoo priest. So, here is the first stone! As it is
becoming clearer that our nation and our people are of the night (a term
once used to describe Michael Howard – United Kingdom Conservative
Party Leader) – those of us who have mothers that believe whatever
difficulties and anxieties cannot be resolved on bended knees, fasting
and praying behind our closed door to the Almighty Creator is not worth
craving can set our heads high; mouths agape and our Schadenfreude
spirit rejoicing - ready to point fingers at revelations of those who
cannot cast the first stone for soliciting Voodoo priests. Are we now
set to hear of these cosmetic adherents of Christianity and other
religions, who in the day are worshippers of God; and at night are at
the altar of the Devil? This is big stuff. It is Voodoo Anambra, Voodoo
Nigeria. If the
account of the Daily Independent Newspaper that the Pan-Igbo
socio-cultural organisation, Ohaneze Ndigbo, has frowned at the raid on
the now infamous Okija shrine in The
utterance of Mr. Achuzie is not as important as what Okija Shrine
symbolises for us as a people. It is not because the Shrine is in I
anticipate this a story that may be likened to the genesis of the arrest
of Ms. Margaret MacDonald – a Brit arrested in Unusually,
I congratulate the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun –
whom I have criticised on several occasions; and Anambra State Police
Commissioner, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu together with the Commander of the
Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Mr. Gabriel Haruna. These men deserve
national honours for standing against infamy and With
all the focus on the Police at this time – the only inquiry to be
settled is why was an anti-robbery Unit of the Nigeria Police used in
the raid? Are we to believe that the Police had no fore knowledge of the
practises at Okija Shrine? If that were so, it should be understood that
no one is safe in the country. What of the environmental breakdown in
that part of The
ruse that some of the corpses were offered in life by the dead must be
debunked. We cannot and must not proceed from such a baseless
assumption. The question this begs is whether the arrested priests were
regulated as providers of alternate medicine. Could they argue that they
were not evil but were “healing” practitioners? This argument is
hardly tenable and better not considered. So, if the corpses found were
not vested in the Shrine or its Priests – the question is how they got
to the forest. Are we looking at murder in some instances? As the
country has no effective missing persons data does Okija not present a
need for one? If one were in existence, it would have assisted in
providing factual evidence. But, we have a nation that long overlooked
such simple needs to protect the citizen. From this raid – the
government must consider its internal affairs ministry look into
provision of a missing persons databank. Would
it therefore, surprise us, if the raids do not make murderers out of the
Okija priests? At least, where they have not killed directly, they may
be accomplices in crimes that delivered the corpses. Or, are they just
tomb-raider priests? If they have stolen the corpses from burial
grounds, complexities arise as to whether they are thieves and if they
are, whose are the corpses - the Estates of the deceased? The State? I
cannot see how the State could claim the corpses as its properties; and
neither could the Estate make a claim. This may well provide the
technicality for the priests to be acquitted of theft – a lesser
charge. It is imperative that where a charge of murder cannot be
sustained for dry skeletons, evidence gathering must now concentrate on
decomposing ones. But of what crimes could the priests be charged?
Arguably, extortion, blackmail and where evidence exists, murder. As
for the Therefore,
can the governor of Was
it not Okey Ndibe in: “Of God and Ungodly Deeds” that
demonstrated how even our young people and societal mores are constructs
of Voodoo, Spiritism, Cultism, and Abracadabra beliefs. Even University
students no longer believe in logic, reason, hard work and excellence.
Doctors seek the Shrines to conceive children; civil servants seek them
for promotions; politicians for power; spinsters and housewives to find
and retain husbands; professionals for success – pecuniary and
otherwise. The only favour that these priests can do for the nation is
to expose their patrons. We should consider such exposure in
plea-bargaining for lesser sentences. May be at last, hypocrisy and evil
in the country would be rolled back a little. Have
I just stated – at last? Nay, the last of this treatise and this has
troubled my mind since In
closing, we must protect the whistleblower - Mr. Chukwumezie Igwe from BANJO
ODUTOLA
The
writer is a solicitor of the Supreme Court, |