500 Okija victims recount ordeal
The Day Okija 'Gods' Invaded Reps' Chamber
Okija Shrines Priests Confess
Ngige speaks on Okija, warns troublemakers
The Okija shrine horror
House in rowdy session over Okija shrines
Okija Invasion, Deliverance for Nigerians
God Intervened in Okija, Says Cleric
Top politicians use fake names in Okija shrine register
Okija shrines were 419 tools
Those killed by Okija shrine are criminals – Chief priest
Don’t tarnish Igbo image, Achuzia insists
Aambra Govt to Acquire Okija Shrine
Okija: IG Gets Presidential Order, Ohanaeze Disowns Shrine
Okija community defends shrine, vows to resist acquisition
Anambra To Acquire 'Evil' Forest
Police Seal off Okija Shrines
Shocker for IGP at Okija shrines
Okija People are not Cannibals, Says Monarch
Raid on shrines: Police recover 50 corpses, 20 skulls
INSIDE HORROR SHRINE- Inside Okija horror shrine
Police uncover 10 fresh shrines, Ohanaeze scribe slams raid
Okija Shrine of Death- HOW WE GET HUMAN SKULLS-Chief priest
In Okija, The Gods Are To Blame For Killings
Wabara: Why Are Igbo Forests Not For Tourism?
More corpses recovered
Police Medical Team Conduct Autopsy at Okija Shrine
Daily Independent
6th October 2004
By Okey Maduforo, Correspondent, Awka
On the orders of the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. TafaBalogun, nine police medical experts were on Tuesday sent to the Ogwugwushrines at Okija in Anambra State to carry out forensic tests on the corpses soas to determine the remote and immediate causes of their death.
After a visit to the shrines in August, the InspectorGeneral pledged to send a medical team to check the corpses before they wereevacuated.
This action may not be unconnected to unconfirmed reportsthat some relatives of the deceased had written the police, asking for therelease of the remains of their loved ones for befitting burial.
Chief Superintendent of Police and Consultant Pathologist,Force Headquarters, Abuja, Dr. Akhiwu Wilson, led the team that also hastoxicologists and forensic radiologists.
Wilson said, “The aim of police investigation is todetermine the cause of death of these bodies and skeletal remains. It is ascientific thing. It takes time. It is a long process and there are steps to betaken to find out these answers.”
He added that some specimen of the bodies would be taken sothat the team could carry out medical investigations on them. He said his teammay evacuate some bodies to well established laboratories for furtherinvestigation. Wilson said the team would also try to find out the identity ofthe corpses “because it will help to make the investigationeasier”.
The force police public relations officer was not availableto confirm the alleged demands by the relatives of the deceased to have thecorpses for burial.
It was however gathered that those who recently dumped theirdead ones at the shrine are said to be making plans to retrieve the corpses forburial.
Police Report on Okija may be Delayed, says Olakpe
The Guardian
4th October 2004
By Odita Sunday
FINAL police reports on the Okija shrine may not be out soon, it was disclosed yesterday.
Speaking with The Guardian yesterday in Lagos, the Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Chris Olakpe, a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), said investigations of the issue were still going.
His words: "We are about getting there. Analysis on the skeletons and bodies found in the shrine is going on now.
"The investigating police officers (IPOs) are now undertaking analysis with forensic experts."
According to Olakpe, the Police would need to know the "causes or death of those bodies we found. We want to know if those people were killed by the shrine or they died because of human neglect, or they died because of they were murdered. These are the issues, and that is what forensic experts are doing now. So we should be a little bit patient."
Citing the "Boy Adam" case in London, he said: "It took over four years. British people were patient. They even had to fly down to Nigeria and worked with Nigerian forensic experts to be able to narrow the killing to South-West axis for which one Kingsley Ojo was finally arrested and prosecuted."
He, therefore, urged Nigerians to help the police do a thorough investigation: "Timeframe is not the issue, doing a holistic job is the issue here," he said.
Olakpe declared that police would raid any shrine in Nigeria "which is run in a way that is repugnant to national justice provided the public provides us with information."
Supreme Court Recognises Okija Shrines
NewAge
4th October 2004
By Ngozi Nwozor
The Ogwugwu shrines in Okija, Anambra State may have been the scene of macabre practices and grisly finds but NewAge can reveal that the Supreme Court, recognises the right to existence of the Okija deities.
In a landmark judgment delivered on June 22, 2004 by Niki Tobi, Justice, Supreme Court (JSC) it was held that where parties in a dispute voluntarily submit to shrines, common (English) laws would no longer be binding on them as the shrines’ decision would be binding. The judgment reads in part: “It is my view that where parties decide to be bound by traditional arbitration resulting in oath taking, common law principles … no longer apply. In such a situation, the proof of ownership or title to land will be based on the rules set out by the traditional arbitration resulting in arbitration under customary law, the applicable law is customary law and not common law principles with their characteristic certainty and ossification.”
The case involved a land dispute between Umungede family, the defendants, and Ulogo family, the plaintiffs, both from Owaza in Ukwa local council of Abia State.
They had first sworn at before “Akpam Juju,” at Obuzo, also in Ukwa, before equally swearing before “Ogwugwu Akpu” of Okija.
The court heard that nobody had died as a result because none of those who swore stepped onto the disputed land for the one year the Okija juju was expected to kill the liars. This caused the families to go first to the Ukwa Customary Court, customary court of Appeal, Abia State, the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt, before ending the Supreme Court.
The Court of Appeal had ruled that “before the British brought their system of administration of justice we had our traditional system that worked. It worked and still works, better for the indigenes because it is faster and cheaper and they understand it, not being bugged down by the unnecessary and avoidable technicalities that beset the English.” And to this judgment, Justice Tobi had added, “I can hardly improve on the above conclusion.”
One of those who appeared before the lower court as witness introduced himself thus: “My name is Okonkwo Chukwueta. I live at Ubahu Ezike Okija in Anambra State. I am a juju priest. The name of my juju is Ogwugwu Akpu of Obaha Ezike in Okija.
Justice Tobi’s ruling was supported by Salihu Modibbo Alfa Belgore (JSC), Sylvester Umaru Onu (JSC), Anthony Ikechukwu Igu (JSC) and Dennis Onyejife Edozie (JSC).
Following the raiding of the Okija shrines by the police and the subsequent discovery of over 35 corpses Nigerians had risen in anger, condemning the practice. The explanation by the priests at the shrines that the dead were killed by the juju as a form of arbitration which equally demanded that their corpses be surrendered to it did not go down well with many who simply refused to believe the priests version to the contrary.
They were consequently arrested and are still in police detention. Many have called for a speedy investigation by the police so that the priests could be charged to court if there are any cases established against them. They, on their own part, have insisted that what they were doing was tradition which had existed down the ages.
Meanwhile, one of the most dreaded shrines in Igbo land, similar to the controversial Ogwugwu Okija shrines in Ihiala Local Government of Anambra state, Igwekala Umunoha of Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State, has been selected to be a tourism site by the state government.
Governor Achike Udenwa in his address to mark the World Tourism Day held at the Imo Concorde Hotel Owerri last week said that in order to accelerate the development of the tourism industry and to enhance the revenue base of the state, tourism potentials like the Igwekala of Umunoha shrine, Lagwa monkey colony, Oguta Holiday Resort and the Ojukwu bunker at Oguta will be developed.
Igwekala Umunoha a shrine with a deity that has similarities with the Ogwugwu Okija of Ihiala, adjudicates in disputes and is known to prescribe stiff punishment for offenders.
Police expose Okija shrines patrons Oct 21
Daily Champion
4th October 2004
A bombshell is expected on October 21 when police authorities finally make public the names contained in the 13 registers recovered from the Okija Shrines in Ihiala council area of Anambra State.
Names of some prominent politicians, tycoons, opinion leaders, military and police top brass and others are among those said to feature in the registers.
Top police sources told Daily Champion weekend in Lagos that the names would have been long released, but for the need to await the conclusions of on-going forensic tests on 150 skeletons also recovered from the shrines.
"The tests will end in about three weeks’ time and the police will publish the names. You will be amazed at the contents," the sources said.
Daily Champion learnt that besides the forensic laboratory in Oshodi, analyses of the skeletons were also distributed among teaching hospitals.
The sources hinted that some personalities listed in the registers would be arrested and interrogated once the forensic tests are completed.
"If found culpable, the suspects, no matter who they are, will be charged with murder. It promises to be sensational," they added.
The shrines saga gained national spotlight in August this year when, following a petition, police raided the Ogwugwu Akpu and Ogwugwu Isiala shrines leading to the discovery of 50 decomposing corpses and 20 skulls.
The development elicited angry reactions. Even the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr Tafa Balogun, about a fortnight later stormed the sites with over 200 heavily armed mobile policemen for first hand information and reportedly made more discoveries at the place.
The police also, later, arrested some of the priests and workers at the shrines who are being detained by Force Criminal Investigation. Department (FCID) in Abuja
Force spokesman, Deputy Commissioner, Chris Olakpe confirmed police readiness to release the names on the registers once the forensic analyses are through.
Paradox of Okija and the Igbo Dilemma
Daily Champion
1st October 2004
ALLOY C. IBEH
THE recent furore over the discovery of the Okija shrines (Ogwugwu Akpu) in Anambra State exposes certain unpalatable realities about the dynamic Igbo race. Principally, one is the perversion of the values and social control that shrines such as Okija formerly represented, to one of money-making and extortion. It brings out in bold relief that while every major nationality has lost some of her values, the plight of the Igbo lies in some of her people’s worship of money and the quest to acquire wealth at all costs.
While growing up in present day Imo State, we had heard of the Okija shrine and how it helped to instil justice among the people. In those days, people were insincere in their transactions with others, everyone was mindful not to bring shame and odium to the family name. Those who did, were more often than not, openly disowned, for a good name was valued by the Igbo more than riches.
When once as a school boy, I mistakenly went home with a fellow pupil’s pair of canvas shoes for holidays, I was denied entry into my own father’s compound who then accompanied me to the boy’s village 30 kilometres away and despite confirmation from the owner that it was a honest mistake, I was thoroughly lashed. Such was the discipline in Igbo homes then.
But the long-cherished values of our forefathers, of our parents are fast vanishing. It is likely that even if the incidence of advance free fraud (419) is eradicated in Nigeria today, among the south east youths, it will require another 50 years to wean them off the get-rich-quick syndrome which has been our principal attitude since the end of the civil war in 1970.
The lust for money is evident even in the Okija shrine saga. In times past, priests were elderly sages who would never collect more than token payment from patrons. A visit to the popular markets in Lagos and other parts of Nigeria will reveal the dislocation of youths from the normal path. Young men, who rather than complete their school career are all over the place, believing that they should make lots of money as quickly as possible. Many delve into business and find that getting money is not as easy as they thought, they end up doing menial jobs to survive while a good number of them opt for extortion, 419, and other shady deals all in order to realise their initial dreams of quick wealth.
There is a prevalent belief among many of these youths that no one with wealth made it legitimately or ‘clearly" and with this mindset, live all their lives. Recently, at a public check-point, a greedy policeman out for extortion stopped a motorist and asked for the usual "particulars". After going through the documents and finding no loophole to use for his extortion, he asked the motorist: my friend, shebi you be Ibo man, now all your "brothers" passing here no dey waste our time!" Translation: being Igbo to these class of corrupt policemen must attract settlement.
It is a fixation that elders of the South-East should combat. So far, there is no concerted effort to reverse this insulting and degrading notion of seeing every Igbo man as potentially corruption-prone. No one nationality in this country has a monopoly of negative habits just as no one has a monopoly of virtues.
Ndigbo were known for integrity and high moral standards, but today the reverse is the case, we can even attempt to bribe God if we see him! The rising level of illiteracy among youths is something to worry about, all the language they understand is buying and selling. Go to any of these markets, just ask them where you can get John Bull, beloved, they will respond in the affirmative "I gettam, how many do you want?" To them money is meant to be worshipped, they only respect you if you are rich, but if you are not, even if you are of their father’s age, they will call you by your first name.
The worship of money is not limited to individuals out to make a quick buck. Even people in authority who ought to show example are involved in the rat race for easy money. They include community leaders who accept the dumping of dangerous toxic waste in our community for a fee. Of course, Nigerians are eagerly awaiting the publication of Okija shrine patrons which are said to be replete with the names of the rich and mighty in society.
The evidence of the devaluation of values is all around us. Our elders do not query the source of the emergency wealth of their children and youths. Rather chieftaincy titles are bestowed on men of dubious means. Titles like Onwa (which means the moon) and Oputa Obia (at his appearance it is over), are given to mere morals. Yet, traditional society is very religious and these titles were praise names for the creator of the universe.
It is sad that our leaders spend more time on emotive political slogans such as "margimalisation" and Igbo presidency. While there are desirable ends in themselves, they should also seriously and earnestly address the weighty issues of the moral decadence afflicting their people especially the youths.
What kind of future do South-East leaders envisage if the cream of their youth are morally deficient? Even those who seek a Biafran Eldorado should be worried at who will lead or form the productive workforce of tomorrow? Perhaps it is partly on account of this moral ambiguity that our erstwhile comrades in Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Bayelsa States are wary of any future pact with the five South-Eastern states.
Yet, there is hope for while the elites who ought to have intervened and taken principled stand on the events in Anambra State for the past five years, have largely prevaricated, the ordinary people on the street have demonstrated what they are willing to follow principled leadership. They have also demonstrated that despite the degradation of cherished values, sound morality is something that strikes a chord.
One way to start is to begin re-inculcating the virtues of hard work, of the values of a good name, of integrity and honesty. No longer should dubious people be given titles they so patently do not deserve. Certainly, chieftaincy titles ought not to be given solely on account of the recipients’ ability to brandish money and shower traditional rulers with gifts.
Parents and guardians should learn not to measure their children’s success in life with their bank balances and the number of cars they can buy. Nor should success be measured by the size of houses built. Character, good character, good reputation are the values that our people respected in the past. There is no reason to dump these positive values.
The Okija shrines issue should take Ndigbo back to their senses and forge a return to values of reputation, honesty and integrity. Only then would be the people have worthwhile values.
•Mr. Ibeh lives in Lagos