Okija ritual killings
SIR: We read in the national dailies of August 4 and 5, 2004, with total disgust the recovery by the police, of over 20 human skulls, fresh corpses and the arrest of 30 suspected ritualists in the Ogwugwu Okija shrine in Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State.
According to the report, the notorious Ogwugwu deity kills anyone found to be guilty of any matter reported to it or failed to appear before it after two notices from the chief priest. We salute the courage of the Anambra State Police Commissioner, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu for invading the shrine and making the arrest. We call on Federal Government and the Nigeria Police to give Commissioner Ogbaudu all necessary encouragement and assistance to finish the good work of purification he has started.
We have no doubt that some powerful people in the country may be behind this hideous act. Experiences have shown that powerful Nigerians will want to influence or cover up the case as evidenced in the case of Christopher Orji, a man-eater. Commissioner Ogbaudu should be permitted to finish the good work he has started. Indeed it is a great purification exercise that is capable of taking this country from the level of a great sinner country to the greatest height we usually occupied. Nigeria is an undisputed leader of the black continent where, ritual killings should not be allowed to thrive.
We are not unmindful of the fact that there are a lot of deities in Nigeria. We also acknowledge people's constitutional right, gullibility, beliefs and devotion to deities. We condemn in strong terms a situation where shrines are used to commit murder and settle scores. Citizens are therefore called upon to resist any attempt by anybody to sweep the police report on this matter under the carpet. We insist that all perpetrators of evil of man to man must be revealed and brought to justice.
The only way police can prove to citizens that notable Nigerians are not the brain behind this hideous crime is to make public, names of people in the recovered registers from the shrine. Police should not spare anybody who might have benefited negatively from the shrine.
Ritual killing of any sort is an evidence of underdevelopment. A contributing factor to the spiritual alienation of man from his creator. There is no developed nation in the world where ritual killing is celebrated. The National Assembly, as a matter of urgency, should promulgate a law that will check the activities of the shrine.
More importantly, we call on all religious leaders, parents and school administrators to start a campaign against such a barbaric practice.
This is why the African Citizens Development Foundation (ACDF) has been agitating and shall continue to agitate for the establishment of Independent National Disciplinary Commission (INDC) where all these nefarious activities will be dealt with as all citizens become stakeholders. We maintain passionately that all these uncivilised practices are effects of indiscipline in our society and undisciplined society is an ungodly society.
Dele Ajayi Smith,
Olusola Taiwo,
For: African Citizens Development Foundation,
Lagos
