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 Daily Independent Online.
* Friday, August 13, 2004.
Those
killed by Okija shrine are criminals - Chief priest
By Chris Agbambu (Abuja)
David Odey, Sebastine
Ebhuomhan (Lagos)
and Okey Maduforo (Awka)
Hooked on the barbarism he has
probably spent all his life practising, the chief priest of Okija shrine,
Eddy Ndukwu, says the killings there are justified and vowed to continue
the horrific vocation if he regains his freedom.
Ndukwu, who claims to be a
devout Christian, said the victims were criminals.
When asked in police custody
in Awka if he knew that the killing of human beings is unlawful, he
replied: “Nobody has ever told me that it is unlawful. My forefathers, my
grandfather, and my mother never told me that it is against the laws of
the land. Nobody told me that if somebody is cheated, or offended and
runs to the shrine for assistance, it is unlawful. I am just hearing that
for the first time”.
Backing him, South East
Council of Chief Priests in Anambra State have started a seven-day
fasting, prayers and hourly incantation over the raid on the shrine.
Their representative,
Onuchukwu James Clerk, said in Awka that the practice of traditional
religion is not against the Constitution and that the raid is a breach of
their freedom of worship.
Meanwhile, all the 31 suspects
arrested in connection with killings at the shrine were on Thursday moved
to Abuja from Awka.
They arrived Abuja at about
4:15 p.m. with an escort of about 100 mobile policemen led by the inspector
general of police monitoring team commanded by Assistant Commissioner of
Police (ACP) Yusuf Ahmed.
The team also brought
registers containing the names of the victims who died at the shrine as
well as those who visited it.
Police believe that there are
other shrines in Anambra and in the neighbouring Imo State, which they
want to storm.
It is a hunch buttressed by
claims by the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of
Biafra (MASSOB) that it had
discovered about 200 shrines in Anmabra State long before the police
swooped on Okija.
A member of MASSOB who pleaded
anonymity, said the body had, in December last year, told its members to
get the names of all the major shrines in Igboland with a view to praying
for their destruction.
It was in the course of this
exercise, he explained, that 200 shrines were discovered in Anambra State
alone, and that it was after MASSOB members went into marathon prayers
that the police swooped on Okija.
The operation was long
overdue, as the shrine had been exposed five months ago by Daily
Independent Breaking News.
On March 4, it published an
exclusive story on the preservation of the corpse of the late Igbo
billionaire, Victor Okafor, alias Ezego, at the shrine, years
after his death and purported burial.
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