How Ngige, Uba Visited Okija Shrine
By Lanre Issa-Onilu in Lagos and Charles Onyekamuo in Awka
Okija shrines may be strange to the rest of the world, but not to its prominent clients, which include the Anambra State governor, Dr. Chris Ngige and his erstwhile godfather, Chief Chris Uba.
THISDAY can exclusively reveal that the shrines in which police last week uncovered several human skulls and corpses of people believed to have been killed recently has been playing host to many prominent politicians who patronise them for various reasons.
THISDAY investigations specifically reveal that it was an Okija shrine that the Anambra governor was taken to by Uba early last year as a Gubernatorial candidate of the Peoles Democratic Party (PDP). The revelation about a visit to the shrine became public knowledge following the aborted abduction of Ngige on July 10 last year by supporters of Uba.
Four officials of the Anambra government last night confirmed to THISDAY that the governor and his assailants were actually at the alter of the Ogwugwu gods to swear on oath though they contradicted one another as to whether or not Ngige actually swore at the shrine.
Fred Chukwuelobe, Special Adviser on Media to governor Ngige, while not denying the report that Ngige was at Okija shrine, however, said that the governor actually stayed back in the car while the oath was being performed.
"The governor never went to the shrine with Uba. When the governor, as a candidate, was forced there, he refused to follow them and instead stayed in his car," said Chukwuelobe.
Curiously, this account of what happened at Okija contradicts the evidence of the governor who admitted meeting the priest who he claimed was speaking "rubbish."
Ngige, during a testimony at the Senate chambers on July 18 last year had stated: "... the truth is unshakeable... I had gone with Uba to Archbishop Chukwuma to pray on oath using the Bible and as a Christain, that was enough for me.
" (Hon Chuma) Nzeribe later suggested that I do an oath before a shrine and my deputy governor joined in the campaign and when I spoke with my bishop, he advised that if I must go, I should carry my Bible and annointing oil and follow them.
"We went at 3.00 am and we met one man that was speaking rubbish. When they finished, I left. It's the oath that they took that is harassing them, while my Bible is protecting me."
But distancing the Catholic arch-diocese of Onitsha from the statement credited to Ngige that he agreed to follow his captors to the shrine with the consent of his bishop, the director of Mass Communication of the Archdiocese, Reverend Dr. Bonny Asuzu had countered that the statement "I followed them to the shrine...My bishop said I should follow them with the Bible and holy oil" was not made in reference to the archbishop of Onitsha.
Asuzu in a statement said "If indeed the governor actually made the statement, in view of the embarrassing comments emanating from it, His excellency has the responsibility to tell the press and the general public who was precisely the bishop with whom he had the dialogue in order to dispel unwarranted speculations on the issue."
Asuzu said that there had been insinuations that the statement was made in reference to the Archbishop of Onitsha and stated categorically that "whoever may be the Archbishop in question is not and cannot be the Archbishop of Onitsha or the coadjutor Archbishop of Onitsha."
Meanwhile, as the saga unfolds, a lawyer to Okija, Osita Ndukwu, one of the detained priests of Ogwugwu, Barr. Okechukwu Okani told THISDAY in Awka yesterday that it would be wrong to charge the detained priests for murder as there is nothing that says in Nigerian laws that the minister of a shrine is responsible for the death of those whose corpses are found in the evil forest, adding that "only the gods are culpable."
He said his clients are contemplating heading for the court to challenge the police action in burning their personal effects and confiscating their property during the raid.
The Anambra Police Commissioner, Felix Ogbaudu, had last week alluded to the possibility of the police charging the priests for murder if found culpable at the end of investigations which the police initiated and suggested of an elightenment campaign to educate citizens of the state of other mechanisms for conflict resolution as a way of dissuading them from patronizing the deity's priests.
Curiously, while police may be celebrating the arrest of Okija priests, the culprits too are happy for the raid. Since the police invaded the shrines, several new adherents have been turning up from far and near, two of the priests have claimed.
Pa Edimuo Ndukwu, the priest to Ogwugwu Isi-ura and James Obi, who minister to Ogwugwu Akpu, two of the dieties in the three shrines found in Ogwugwu forest told THISDAY at the Central Police State, Awka that the raids conducted on their shrines have rather given popularity to the dieties and they have now been receiving many visitors.
Pa Ndukwu claimed that since the arrest of the priests, not less than 20 people he had never met have sought information on how they (priests) could be reached. He said these new people have complaints to make to the dieties over some transactions that had been breached by some people.
"Ogwugwu has been popularised, instead of (being) demystified. It has been sold to the world by the police through the television and newspapers. Those who didn't know about it are coming and making enquiries. It is now marketable. Since the raid and since we came to the police here, over 20 people we never knew had inquired from us how they can reach us because they had complaints to make to the diety about those who cheated them of large sums of money in the past and refused to pay up," he claimed.
Pa Ndukwu who told THISDAY that he has explained to the police what he knew about the Ogwugwu deity, and the Ogwugwu - Isi-Ura shrine which he particularly ministers to said that the corpses found in shrines were actually killed by the gods and that those who the gods had killed were countless.
Confirming that the worship of Ogwugwu by Okija people had been on since time immemorial, Pa Ndukwu explained that the deity kills only those who committed evil, or the greedy oppressors who disposses the poor of their land and were in turn reported to it to intervene.
He further explained: "The practice of worshipping the Ogwugwu had been age old. What we normally do is to ask the complainant to report to the deity; and we don't normally know where they come from and their reason for coming. But we warn them that the deity kills. Most times, we don't know when the god kills, but the relatives normally inform us, and we ask them to go and bring the corpse for the "arusi" (deity).
"It is not only the corpse but the victim's belongings, including his personal effects. You see, those who come to Ogwugwu are normally the poor who are usually oppressed by the rich and dispossessed of their land. The ogwugwu requires you to speak the truth. It kills only the greedy oppressors and those who come before it to tell lies. But if it turns out that you lied against the person you complained about, it kills you too for lying before it. Even some of us who minister to it, if we lie, kills us too.
"Politicians come here to enact convenant and even two or more people entering into a business patnership in case one of them wants to cheat or doublecross the others," he said.
He said that the Ogwugwu Isi-ura was registered with both the corporate affairs commission (CAC) and the state government as a cultural organisation with the powers to arbitrate over local and cultural matters and not in killing of people; adding that the certificate of registration is renewed yearly with the state government via the Ihiala Local Government Area with the sum of N50,000.
The Octogenarian also explained why they keep registers of those thrown into the forest, saying it is both for exoneration of the priests as the killers instead of the gods, and keeping accurate records. The registers which he said are now many have records of the names of the dead, the person who brought the corpse for deposition in the forest and the person who complained to the deity, adding that the complainant usually brings kolanuts, alligator pepper, spirits, (hot drinks) and a foul, and or goat as the case may be, and that he is required to also add a little money for drinks by the ministers before making his complainant to deity.
Describing Mr. Chukwumezie Obed Igwe who petitioned the police before the raid as a liar whose late father, actively participated in the ministration to the gods, Pa Ndukwu said they also keep records of those who had benefited from the deity, especially those who made vows to it. These he said, included businessmen, politicians, those travelling overseas, barren women looking for children, those in need and even policemen, and others who come to renew their vows with cows or anything at all.
He said that what is sacrified to the idol by the chief priest depends on what it demands, adding that it includes fowl, kolanuts, spirits, chalk and at times goat, adding that it has not demanded for human beings but kills by itself those who lie, "speak the truth before me, that's all". He expressed the view that the god will fight for itself but would not predict how and the nature.
The priest and agent of Ogwugwu Akpu, James Obi also expressed similar views as Pa Ndukwu.
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