A shrine where ritual killings allegedly takes place
has been discovered in the Ishiagu community in
Ivo LGA of Ebonyi State. In the shrine, human parts
sell for between N500,000 and N1million. Scary
stuff! Read the full report from Saturday Sun
below...
It was gathered that when the nefarious
activities going on in the shrine were ex
posed, youths of the community went wild
and destroyed the shrine as well as the prop
erty of the Chief priest and two suspected
agents (names withheld by us) from Ngwog
wo community. Among the items recovered
from the shrine is a picture of the Chief
priest holding something that looks like a
human hand as well as a register said to be
containing the names of the people who had
been killed by the evil men and those yet to
be killed.
And to prevent the situation from getting out of
hand, the police stormed the community and
arrested some people.
When the reporter went to Ishiagu on May 7, there
was apprehension in the air. Apparently gripped by
fear, the villagers kept sealed lips. Even the
traditional ruler, HRH Eze Lawrence O. Chukwu,
Ibina 1 of Okue autonomous community, an old fel
low, claimed that he had not been properly briefed
on the matter.
However, the body language of the people spoke
volumes. They appeared to be living in palpable
fear. For instance, an indigene of the community,
Mr Charles (surname withheld) who was supposed
to be our contact person chickened out when the
reporter arrived Ishiagu. In fact, in Ishiagu, the
fear of ritualists is the beginning of wisdom. Or so
it seems.
And this is coming not long after suspected
ritualists invaded the community and stole nine
children. Mrs Nnenna Emmanuel Okonkwo, a
mother of six, whose two children were stolen in
one night told the reporter: “As I was sleeping, I
was woken up at 4am when I heard the sound of
my door being broken. I began to shout inside my
room, ‘who is that? Who is that? Who is that?’
Then some men broke down the door and pointed
their light at my face. They started dragging my
eight-month old son with me and I called out to my
mother-in-law in the next room, telling her that
some people had broken into my room to take
away my baby. As I was struggling with them, they
gave me dirty slaps on either side of the cheek.
The impact of the slaps as my eyes were covered
with blood. As they were taking my child away, my
husband’s younger sister blocked them outside.
So, they kicked her with their boots and she fell,
hitting her waist on the ground.
“Then, they went to the other room where my
mother-in-law and my daughter were sleeping
and broke down the door as well. They entered the
room and took away my daughter, aged three
years and seven months who was sleeping with
her grandmother. My mother in-law shouted that
they can shoot her but leave her grand children,
but they refused. They carried the two children
into the vehicle they parked outside. Before our
neighbours could come out, they had zoomed off.
Since then, we have not set eyes on the children.
My mother in-law said she could not live with
what happened; that it was better for her to die.
And she died two weeks later.”
In a related development, a six-man gang which
specialised in the sale of human parts for ritual
purposes in Nkwerre, Imo State was recently
smashed by the local vigilance group. It was
gathered that when members of the gang were
arrested, they confessed that they had been
kidnapping their victims at various locations in the
state. They also volunteered that they use the vital
organs of their victims for rituals even as some
were harvested and sold to people who needed
them to transplant failed organs.
Confessing to the crime, they explained that the
prices for their ‘goods’ were not fixed. According
to them, they sold the parts between N500,000
and N1million, depending on what was in demand.
The gory act assumed a life of its own when the
men took members of the local vigilance group and
policemen to their abattoir in a forest in Umugara
village, Nkwerre where the decomposing corpses
of some of their victims, mostly women and
children were found.
In Ibiasoegbe in Oru West LGA of Imo State, a 66
year-old woman identified as Mrs. Josephine
Okorie was gruesomely murdered in her farm
recently.
Few days after Mrs. Okorie, who was a church
warden at St. Paul’s Curch, Ibiasoegbe was killed,
the people of Umuakaje Umuseke, Okwudor
community in Njaba LGA was thrown into
mourning and confusion following the killing of one
of their daughters, 28 year-old Mrs. Chikodi Nzer
em. Her three-month old baby boy was also stolen
by the cradle snatchers who cut off her head.
A source said: “Apparently, the ritualists wanted to
go away with their victim’s decapitated head but
when they heard the voice of another woman, who
was coming along the bush path, they escaped,
abandoning both the head and the body. The
woman raised the alarm and other farmers came
but the evil people had escaped.”
In the same vein, Mrs Chikodi Nzerem, a widow
and nursing mother of a four month-old baby boy,
was murdered in her father’s house in Okwudor in
Njaba LGA of Imo State. Her baby was also stolen.
Family sources alleged that the mother of three
was sent to the great beyond by her boyfriend who
had pestered her for marriage without success
since her husband died about two years ago. “I
believe she was killed because she refused to
hand over the child to her boyfriend and no one
knows what has become of the tot. Perhaps, it has
been used for ritual,” said Chikodi’s sibling.
Indeed, investigation revealed that ritualists are on
the prowl looking for people to devour. Hence the
rate of ritual attacks and killings have increased
considerably in recent times. It is the same story
everywhere, as no part of the country is being
marginalised on this score.
On March 1, Mrs Zainab Mohammed was brutally
raped at Kukshi village, Dass LGA of Bauchi by
three men who also plucked her eyes with a knife
for ritual.
The victim, a 30-year old mother of four who is
physically challenged, said: “They held my neck
and I almost died. They twisted my hands, they
opened my two and took turns to rape me. I was
fainting. Then they brought an object – I don’t
know whether it was a knife or not and they
started removing my left eye. I screamed and
tried to struggle but they removed my left eye.
They started removing the other eye and I
screamed louder.”
It was learnt that the evil men took the woman’s
eye to a native doctor who allegedly offered them
N1million.
In May, a 54-year old grandmother, Sukuratu
Salami and three others including a cemetery
guard were paraded at the Lagos State Police
Command, Ikeja for trading in human parts such
as skulls, bones, liver and intestines.
Salami, a mother of three children whose ages are
30, 27 and 23 years respectively, explained that
she was tempted to go into the weird business by
the irresistible offer from a voodoo practitioner. “A
herbalist approached me last and asked for
human parts. When he told how much they buy
parts, I was tempted. I approached one Tantoloun,
who works in a grave yard. He sold a skull for
N10,000 and I sold it in turn for N20,000. Greed
made me to continue until I was arrested. I bought
pieces of bones N2,000, liver and intestines for
N1,000 each and resell for N5,000 or more
depending on the buyer’s bargaining power.”
It could, indeed, be said that ritualists are running
riot in the South West.
In March, a man was caught in Ibadan, Oyo State
with three human tongues. The incident occurred
three days after the shocking discovery of the
horror forest at Soka area of Ibadan where scores
of skulls, human skeletons, mutilated and
decomposing bodies were found.
In April, an eight-year old girl identified as
Amarachi missed death by the whiskers as a
mobile policeman, Gbuchenge Augustine with
Force Number 400823 allegedly wanted to use her
for rituals.
Amarachi was found under the policeman’s bed in
his one-room apartment at Olufowobi Street,
Ikosi-Ketu, Lagos with her mouth gagged and her
hands and legs tied.
Amarachi’s father, Mr Patrick Abakwan, said that
before his daughter was rescued, “the man had
twisted her neck and used an object to break her
skull thinking she would die in the process but God
saved her.”
Also in April, a storey-building that allegedly
served as the operational base of ritualists was
uncovered in Akinremi Estate in Adigbe area of
Ogun State. Discovered at the den were suspected
human blood in a calabash, a coffin, human effigy,
a live scorpion and personal effects believed to
belong to victims who might have been wasted.
The discovery came barely 24 hours after a
similar scene was discovered in Egbado village in
Ewekoro LGA of the state.
Horror of immense proportion played out in
Egwudinage Obegu village in Ebonyi State recently
when a 30-year old man simply identified as
Chukwudi allegedly killed and beheaded his 56-
year old father, Michael. After severing the head of
his father, Chukwudi drank his blood and ate up his
neck.
Maintaining that Chukwudi’s action might not be
unconnected with ritual killing, the Police Public
Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr Chris Anyanwu
disclosed: “He (Chukwudi) was arrested on April 1,
2014 and before he was arrested, he was running
and waving his machete which he used to cut his
father’s head and threatened to kill anybody who
moved close to him. Meanwhile he was
overpowered and arrested but was caught eating
the part of the severed head, after he ate-up the
entire neck of the severed head. I think it is not
unconnected with ritual killing because it does
appear he may have been asked to do such a
thing.”
On June 10, a young boy hawking belts on Alhaji
Jamiu Sulaimon Street in Itele, Ota area of Ogun
State escaped death by the skin of his teeth as he
was almost killed by suspected ritualists who
lured him into a house on the pretext that they
wanted to patronise him.
It was learnt that the boy was hawking with his
friend when he was called into the compound. But
when the boy did not come out after about 30
minutes, his friend raised the alarm. And when the
police stormed the house, an attempt had been
made to slaughter him, as there was a big gash on
his neck. One of his eyes was oozing blood,
perhaps an attempt was made to pluck it.
The Ogun State PPRO, Mr Muyiwa Adejobi said:
“Our men from the Itele Division moved in as soon
as they got a report about the house suspected to
be used by kidnappers and succeeded in rescuing
the boy alive even though he was in bad shape.”
Recently, a heap of over 20 human skulls,
skeletons and decomposing bodies were un
covered at Kilometre 15 on the Aba/Azumini
Highway, otherwise known as ‘No man’s land’
after Akpaa village in Obingwa LGA of Abia State.
There, victims are butchered and their vital organs
removed. One of the victims was identified as 26-
year old Onyekachi Chukwu, who hailed from
Ahaba Imenyi in Isuikwuato LGA of Abia State.
A source attributed the upsurge of ritual killings to
forthcoming election and the get-rich-quick
syndrome. “As we approach the election year,
many desperate politicians will go to any length in
order to win election. They will engage the
services of native doctors who may request for
human body parts to do the medicine. And
because the end justifies the means for them, they
will engage thugs to kidnap and kill people whose
body parts will be removed and forwarded to the
native doctors who requested for them.
“Again, the get-rich-quick bug seems to have
bitten more people nowadays. And such
desperados are ready to do anything, including
harvesting human organs for money rituals,” the
source said.
Culled from Sunday Sun
