Anambra Lawmakers: We Swore at Okija Shrine
By Collins Edomaruse
Majority Leader of Anambra State House of Assembly, Hon. Humphrey Nsofor, yesterday admitted that he and 21 other members of the House were forcefully paraded before the Okija shrine's chief priests, to take an oath of allegiance.
Giving a graphic detail of the exercise over the telephone last night, the lawmaker, however, denied acceeding to the terms of the oaths administration as: "I opted to swear with the name of the Almighty God."
The lawmaker who said the exercise, at the instance of their enstranged godfather, Chief Chris Uba, was mainly to extract a definite commitment that the members of the House would be loyal to him.
"He cajoled us, at some point, intimidated us, but assured us that if we remained loyal to him, he would ensure that President Olusegun Obasanjo does anything he wants him to do for us in the course of our duty.
"He also told us at the shrine that if we fell short of being loyal to him, the deity would take our lives."
Giving more details of the incident, Nsofor said that he and others elected to tell Uba that rather than being loyal to the deity, they would rather reserve their loyalty for the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, their political party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) "since it was all party affairs," he added.
He further said that the practice of swearing before the shrine has been an agelong one as political godfathers in the state have been using the deity to perpetrate their dominance of politics in the state.
"You can't have access to the grassroot, no matter how politically strong you are.
"They used it to ambush the former governor, Chinwoke Mbadinuju, and in the process hijacked his government. They also introduced it at the beginning of the present government, but failed when their abduction attempt on Governor Chris Ngige failed.
"Uba wanted to use the shrine to hold us in bondage and we thank God that the whole thing is crumbling," he added.
"But when heh realised that I was serious, he asked me to recommend a clergyman that could handle the exercise. It was at that point that I suggested Venerable Stanley N. Anwuzia, of St. Andrews Church, Nnewi.
He jumped on it when he was convinced that the man was an Anglican like himself," the lawmaker revealed.
Meanwhile, a vivid account of how the chief priests fed fat on the state's crises has been unveiled.
Giving details at the weekend, a top politician and close watcher of the saga told THISDAY that major players in the shrine saga paid the chief priests staggering sums ranging from N.5 million and N1 million monthly upto the period of the failed abduction bid.
"They were paying the shrine Chief Priest N500,000.00 monthly after the July 10, 2003, failed abduction, to 'pray' for Governor Chris Ngige's death.
"Following the accident involving the Governor's convoy, the Chief Priest told them that Gov. Ngige escaped narrowly and that with more "prayers" to the gods, he will die.
"They also asked the Chief Priest to "pray" for them so that whatever they tell President Obasanjo to do for them he will do.
That was why they panicked when the arrests were made. They are very unsettled because they know they were deeply involved in the shrine business."
The politician frequently mentioned as the hatchet man for all the dirty jobs is Hon. Chuma Nzeribe.
Nzeribe, a House of Representatives member representing Ihiala Constituency comprising Okija town, had last week asked the police to interrogate Ngige if they hope to get to the root of the killings in the Ogwugwu shrine in Okija.
Nzeribe said in Abuja that Ngige had before the April 2003 gubernatorial elections, suggested that if Uba was in doubt of his loyalty, he should be taken to the shrine to swear an oath of allegiance.
Ngige had in the wake of his abduction saga claimed that Uba made him swear an oath at Okija shrine. Uba has, however, denied escorting Ngige to any shrine.
Nzeribe, who praised the police for the raid, however, said Ngige lied that he was forced to the place and did not come down from his car.
"Sometime last year Dr. Ngige admitted publicly that he went to the Okija shrine to take an oath of allegiance and thereby was inducted into the cult. It would be important for Nigerians to take another look at this issue. He accepted publicly that he went to the shrine and that the priest was muttering certain things, what he called speaking in tongues, thereby confirming his presence in the shrine. The time has come for us to ask certain questions.
"If the chief priest there has acknowledged and the governor has acknowledged his presence in the shrine, I wonder what a Christian, a medical doctor, a governor is doing inside a shrine. Must he condescend so low to be a governor? I therefore urge the police that Dr. Ngige is the fit and proper person in further inquiries into the evidence of murder and death. The Igbo people do not worship with dead bodies," Nzeribe said.
It will be recalled that the ugly development was unveiled following a petition to the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun, by mr. Chukwuemezie Obed Igwe, to the effect that lives were lost to the naferious activities of the chief priests of the Okija deity.
This led to the police raid of the shrine where scores of corpses and human skulls were found.
Recalling the circumstance leading to the administration of oath on Ngige at the shrine, Nzeribe, who is the member representing Ihiala Federal constituency in the House of Representatives said, he was coming back from "field operation" before the elections when he stopped at Uba's house in Awka where he said he met Senator (Ikechukwu) Abana, impeached Deputy Governor of Anambra, Okey Udeh, Ngige and (Chief Okey) Odunze discussing Ngige unreliability.
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