500 Okija victims recount ordeal
By Chris Agbambu
Deputy Bureau Chief, Abuja
Shrines in Okija, Anambra State were
chambers of horror and torture. About 500 victims have told police
investigators how they were tortured to confess to crimes they knew nothing
about.
In turn, the police have tightened their
noose on the detained priests who may be charged with multiple crimes against
humanity.
Since the news of their arrests, police
investigators have been inundated with petitions from victims who allege one
form of maltreatment or another by the priests.
They said the ordeal usually started with
an invitation by the priests alleging offences they were innocent of.
One of the victims told the police in
Abuja how the shrine operators extorted more than N3 million from him if he did
not want to die.
The victim, who pleaded anonymity, told
the detectives that it was by the special grace of God that he is alive, having
met their demands.
In their own petition to the police, the
Igbo community in Kwara State narrated
how they were summoned to the shrine.
The younger brother of the captain of the
Super Eagles, Austin Jay-Jay Okocha, was also at the police headquarters to
tell detectives how the footballer was summoned to the shrine.
The victims said they came voluntarily to
narrate their experiences so that when the list of the names in the shrine
registers are published, Nigerians would not be surprised, “because most
of them were victims of circumstances”.
