Wicked tradition
Cultists severe man’s arm for refusing to be initiated
By DAVID ONWUCHEKWA, Nnewi
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Photo: Sun News Publishing
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A 22–year-old man, Mr. Uzochukwu Nnabike Okoli, plumber, has passed through the valley of the shadow of death. He escaped death by whiskers in the hands of masquerades for allegedly refusing to be initiated into the masquerades’ secret cult at Umudara, Umunuko Ukpor in Nnewi South Local Government Area, Anambra State.

Okoli narrated his ordeal to Daily Sun at the emergency unit of a private hospital, Ukpor, where he is being treated after almost losing his left arm to masquerades during the alleged attack.
Precisely on Good Friday, April 2, the victim said he was going to worship at a Catholic church on his motorbike when he saw his younger sister: “I saw my younger sister as I was going to worship then I stopped and parked my motorbike to discuss with her. Suddenly I saw the masquerades and their followers who pursued me and I ran into the bush because they had earlier told my father in January that they will deal with me if I fail to be initiated into the masquerade cult.

“When they caught me they said we should go to the masquerade house (shrine). I refused but they insisted telling me that elders were there and would like to see me. I yielded to that but when we got to the masquerade house they insisted that I must be initiated into the cult, which I resisted. Then at the command of the cult members the masquerades started cutting my left arm with a cutlass to chop it off and perhaps kill me thereafter.” Okoli said that the masquerades so severed his left arm in that it was dangling as if it will fall out “and they cut my bones.” He said that the incident was happening in the presence of the elders who are also members of the cult and could not hush the masquerades to stop their murder mission.

Okoli said it was one man he called Nzu that rescued him and rushed him to the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH), Nnewi, from where he was moved to General Hospital, Ukpor, because of high bill his people feared might be charged at NAUTH.
Not satisfied with the level of treatment at the general hospital, according to the elder brother to Okoli, Chidozie the victim was further moved to a private hospital in Ukpor where he is currently receiving doctor’s attention.

Chidozie told Daily Sun that the matter had been reported to the Ukpor Police Station and that a police officer had taken his brother’s statement even though, according to him, the cult members are still threatening to regroup and launch a fresh attack on his family. He said one of the cult members came in his absence and issued a threat to his mother without any remorse on their earlier attack on Okoli.
Chidozie, a marketer and a part-time student of the Enugu State University of Technology (ESUT), is crying for justice so that his younger brother would not be forced to belong to an organization he does not like: “Don’t we have freedom of religion again in this country? We want justice and nothing but justice.

“My daddy went to the elders to discuss the matter with them but they refused to give him audience saying that it was not a matter between them and him but a matter that will be discussed with the masquerades”.
Contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Awka Mr. Emeka Chukwuemeka, (ASP), said the incident had not been reported to his office but promised to confirm the story with the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Ukpor and get back to the correspondent, although he did not get back to him. All efforts to contact the elders of the masquerades cult members proved abortive