₦airaland Forum

Evil Forest in Enugu

Petrus Obi in Enugu reports that an evil forest where suspected ritualists dismember their victims was discovered in Enugu State recently. Fresh and decomposing human parts were found in the forest located at Inyi, Enugu Ezike in the Igboeze North Local Government of the State.

It was suspected that victims were taken to the forest and butchered by their assailants who in turn removed vital parts needed for money-spinning rituals. In an attempt to end the evil practice in the area, the people had petitioned the State government, urging it to acquire the expanse of land belonging to the village shrine, Ogene Mmili.

The natives that were worried over increasing cases of missing persons in the community, demanded that those involved in the killings should be exposed and punished.

Among the casualties was Miss Eucharia Abugu Eya who was abducted in the street and later found dead in the evil forest with some parts of her body missing.

It was gathered that Miss Gloria Ugwueke (35), and Caroline Odo Eje, a widow with seven children were earlier victims of ritual killing in the community.

However, it was the killing of Miss Edith Ijeoma Onu Ossai that sparked off protests in the community. More than 1,000 women took to the streets, demanding an end to the killings. Edith’s body had been found without her heart, kidney and private part.

Reacting to the spate of ritual killings in parts of Igbo land, the traditional ruler of Enugu Urban (Ogui Nike), Igwe (Dr.) Tony Ojukwu, noted that such killings were alien to Igbo culture.

He traced the ugly trend to travellers from Igbo land that visited other cultures and in the process, copied the practice of using human heads to bury important personalities.

“It was in the course of travelling that our people encountered these killings and tried to import it into Igbo culture; not that our culture encourages kidnapping and killing people. It’s the people who travelled out and visited some cultures where if a prominent person died, they would keep the death secret until some heads were collected to bury the person in strange belief that it add to the deceased’s prestige.

“Such cultures believe that the coffin of a great man must lie on top of some human heads. His kinsmen would travel out or move into the farms to behead people for burial of their dead. It was imported into Igbo land.

“Even in this place, there were times if important persons died non-adults were kept at home; they don’t go to fetch firewood or water to avoid being beheaded. But civilization and Christianity has restructured everything.”

Still in Anambra state, Dom Ekpunobi and Emma Uzor report that ritual killings seldom occur in the commercial city of Onitsha, because the area is dominated by businessmen, who believe in utilizing their time and talent to create wealth instead of engaging in diabolical means of making it in life. The fact, however, remains that those who found it difficult to remain afloat through hard work resorted to violent crimes such as armed robbery and kidnapping. Chief Rommy Ezeonwuka (Ogisi Igbo) who spoke to Sunday Sun on the implication of ritual killing, said it was an abomination for anybody to kill a fellow human being for ritual.

Chief Ezeonwuka posited that whenever such happens, the land is desecrated and there must be sacrifice to appease the gods.

He said that on no account should the blood of a human being be shed, pointing out that the gods decry such acts.

Otokoto again in Imo! Girl, 18, beheaded for rituals
Headlines Aug 19, 2009 By Chidi Nkwopara
Residents of Owerri were Wednesday morning treated to a morbid spectacle as the police command paraded four suspects and the decomposing head of an 18-year old Chinwe Doris Perpetua Obieri, who was murdered for ritual purposes.


The bizarre scene, which was a replica of the infamous Otokoto saga of September 1996, had the prime suspect, 24-year old Emeka Uwakwe, from Ndiakunwata, Arondizuogu, Ideato North local government area of the state, clutching the decapitated head of his girl friend, Chinwe.

Speaking to newsmen, the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Aloy Okorie, gave the names of the other suspects as Chigamezu Anyaoha from Orodo, Mbaitoli local council area, Anthony Obioha from Lude, Ahiazu Mbaise local government area, and the medicine man, Damian Joseph from Obot Akara, Akwa Ibom State.

Mr. Okorie gave a graphic account of how the sordid crime was committed and the efforts made by the state police command to apprehend the suspects in far away Lagos State. Excerpts:“You can see we have a case of murder for ritual murder. What happened was that on Sunday, July 26, 2009, the young lady whose head you are seeing (pointing at the decapitated head of Chinwe) left her Akokwa home, Ideato North local government area of Imo State. You can see the head without the body.


Late Chinwe before her death
“The young man, Emeka Uwakwe, is the boy friend of this girl and he came all the way from Lagos and lured her to his house in the village. He murdered the girl, cut off her head for ritual purpose and dumped the headless body in a bush. Apparently, the girl had told her parents that she was going to visit her maternal uncle in another village.

“As at 7.04pm on that same Sunday, she called her parents and informed them she was already in her maternal uncle’s compound and they believed her. Later, her parents made a call to her and the call was not pulling through up till the next morning and by Monday when it was obvious that she was not coming back, they made a report to the police that their daughter was missing.

“The names of the parents are Mr. Nicholas and Mrs. Theresa Obieri from Umuezeala, Umueziama Kindred in Akokwa. It was after they made the report to the police that some vigilante people on the same date, came around and said they saw a headless body in the bush. The police invited the girl’s parents and they identified the headless body to be that of their daughter.

“It was at that point that the police swung into action and started making investigations. From information, we got to know that she had a boy friend who is resident in Lagos and who was seen around home within that period. So, we went to Lagos and we were able to arrest Emeka Uwakwe. You can see him now with the head of the slain girl (pointing at Emeka).

“When we now got him, he made a confession that Mr. Damian Joseph of Obot Akara in Akwa Ibom State, though he is based in Lagos also, was the one who made the charm with which, if he got the head of this girl, mix it with the charm and bury it, money will start flowing, he will start plucking money as if he was plucking fruits from the tree. That was exactly what the man did. He (Emeka) got the concoction, mixed it with the head and buried it in his room.

“We also went for the Native Doctor and got him. Meanwhile, Emeka made a confession too that it was his friends, Chigaemezu Anyaoha and Anthony Obioha, that introduced him to the Native Doctor and that he was capable of making medicine for money. They also confirmed that they had done such a medicine before with human scrotum. We do not know whether it their own scrotum or other people’s scrotum. We will surely find out in due.

“You can see the pretty 18-year old girl (displaying her photograph). I am sure if you had seen this girl when she was alive, you will weep. You will certainly weep because I have never seen a thing like that in my life. I just imagine my own daughter of that age being slaughtered for ritual purposes.

“Well, in an era where we talking about people going to live in the moon, that is the age we are in, 21st century, and people are still being fooled that they can use human head to make money. It is very unfortunate.

“Emeka Uwakwe was arrested on Wednesday last week (August 12, 2009) and when he gave us the information on how he got about the whole show, our men left for Lagos on Sunday and we were able to arrest both the Native Doctor and the other two boys. The next line of action is that they will pay the price prescribed by the laws of the land. We all know the price for somebody who has committed murder. He will pay with his own life. There is no duplicate for life. If he had the courage to kill somebody, he should also be prepared to face the consequence. He should be in a position to say if he killed her with a knife or first strangulated her before he cut off the neck.

“It is very clear that the girl deceived her parents. My advice is simple. I have a daughter of that age. I know how we monitor her. Most times, especially in this era, if she has to go out, we must let go with somebody because you never can tell. That age is a critical period in the training of children. Parents should monitor their daughters closely. It is easy to make contacts in this GSM era. I am sure that if the parents had raised alarm that very night they did not see her, may be things would have come out differently.

Aba was once rated as the commercial nerve centre of the east and alongside Lagos, Onitsha, Port Harcourt and Abuja as the five commercial nerve centres of the nation by the TIME INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE. Aba used to make up 90% of the $8.69billion Abia G.D.P, not any more.
Today, the story has changed. Shops that used to flourish are now serving as branch offices. All the major players in the society have left town, houses are padlocked, offices closed, banking activities scaled down, hospitals closed. As we write no single new building is being developed in the entire city. All prominent doctors are gone, all major lawyers are gone, all prominent importers are gone, all prominent industrialists are gone, all major entrepreneurs are gone, and all foreign technical factory experts are gone. No sane person allows any of his or her family members to be posted to Aba any more. Non indigenes are leaving in drove.
As we write, the banks in Aba are contemplating closing most of their branches; most of them as a matter of fact have trimmed down drastically their operations as 80% of Aba account holders now do their transactions outside Aba. Bank of Industries at No.1 Asa Rd has relocated to Asaba, ECO Bank has permanently closed their Osissioma branch while 7 other banks along Osissioma has temporally closed shop. 90% of the bank workers in Aba have applied for transfer. Center for Management (CMD) has relocated to Owerri. The whole white missionaries at Church of Later Day Saints left Aba by 3 A.M under heavy military escort abandoning one of their most beautiful temples in Africa and their West African Headquarters. Work at the Osissioma end of the Eungu Port Harcourt Express Way was stopped because one of the white engineers was kidnapped. The Eungu-Aba-Port Harcourt and the Aba-Ikot Ikpene Express Ways are now dead zones and no go areas.
Picture of the point where telecom workers were massacred
From intelligence information we gathered, their next target is going to be Club side coming into Aba for the Globalcom National Professional League. Parents should warn their children not to follow any team to Aba and the NPL is now warned that Aba is not safe, CAF should also take note. Whoever encourages anybody to ignore this warning should be hold responsible for any lost of life. Victims of kidnappers overheard them discussing these things openly. If you watched Enyimba match last season you will discover that the crowd has dropped by 80%. As at the last count 67 hotels have closed down in Aba. All because kidnappers and gangsters have taken over the city while the state and federal government decided to watch and do nothing.
Sicily – Italy sounds like a child’s play compared to what has been happening in Aba. Landlords are abandoning their houses looking for accommodation elsewhere. Human beings are being slaughtered in such a manner that will make the lion to envy us. Young girls and old women are being raped. No Hollywood script writer can ever have the imagination to pen down what Aba has turned into. Somali and Sudan combined are far better than the Aba, because the people are at war and they knew it and do not kill their own people. That is why the Aba story is different.
You must have heard about what is going on in Aba, but the truth of the matter is that the number of kidnapping, killing with impunity going on in the city is not being fully reported. What goes out to the public is just about 5% of actual activities going on in Aba. This is because the state Chief executive of the State out of fear of State of Emergency being declared in Abia State has been seriously suppressing the Aba ugly tale.
On a minimum average, over 40 people are being kidnapped daily at Aba, so if you want to start the story of Aba, you start from the most recent in order not to bore your audience.
On Thursday Sept. 9, kidnappers who have colonized the Aba-Port Harcourt Express Way started shooting indiscriminately with their machine guns to vehicles on the highway. As a result, they were able to demobilize 8 vehicles and the few who refuse to stop were gunned down and killed instantly. Some of the passengers ran inside the bush, the other 20 who were unlucky were marched into the bush. The annoying aspect of it all was that few meters away there was a police road block and as usual they were busy collecting N20 from motorists and felt totally less concerned of the kidnapping activities.
After marching a few meters into the bush, the kidnappers said they want to show their victims that they mean business and to demonstrate that they ordered one innocent looking man to march out as he obeyed and stepped forward, four of them emptied their machine bullets on him. They ordered their victims to dig a grave as they brought out four shovels and after digging they dumped the man inside and ordered them to close it. Now that was when their main ordeal started, as they walked about 45 minutes inside the bush, one of their victims told us that he counted three major villages and that all of them have been completely deserted as animals now roam freely.
On getting to a point they separated the males from the females and started raping the women and these are women in their late fifties and some above sixty and young ladies about 9 of them. They were raped turn by turn without any protection. After that, the kidnappers marched their victims to another spot where a burnt vehicle belonging to the Bakassi boys was packed. They once more singled out another victim and asked him “how much will you give us?’ The man said that between his two accounts that he can immediately mobilize N200, 000. They were so outraged with the man that they brought out a knife and started slicing the man’s head with it. And the man’s screams attracted another round of beating until the blood that was gushing out become uncontrollably, they now dumped the man after they had forced him to double his offer.
The next unfortunate victim was a Reverend gentleman; they ordered him to march out and requested to know how much he will give them. The man who was clothed with his religious attire explained to them that he has no money. They inquired from him who owned the vehicle he was riding on; he responded that it belongs to the ministry he was working for. He was ordered to inform his ministry people to come and bail him out. As he was about to respond, they pumped several bullets at close range to his head. These evil minds starting making a show of it as they were laughing and joking about how the man screamed and died, making mockery that his God did not save him.
Once more, they ordered their remaining victims to dig a grave at a spot and without digging deep, they were shocked to realize that several other corpses were buried there. Sensing the fear of their victims, they proudly announced that the place is where they buried their so called Bakassi boys. One of their victims who narrated this story to us was able to count around 20 other makeshift graves around. To cut a long story short, they ended up killing five of their victims who did not make them reasonable offer. As they were boasting that they have sacked over 50 villages around Ukwa East and Ukwa West L.Gs. On average, over 30 people are kidnapped along the Ukwa axis of Abia State daily.
On Thursday 23rd of September, the kidnappers were flagging down a bus coming from Port Harcourt at Obehe, the driver refused to stop and as usual, they started shooting at the bus and 18 passengers died on the spot, others sustained fatal wounds.
From Ukwa we move down to Osissioma L.G. All the areas along the Aba-Enugu express way have been totally taken over by kidnappers. They have over powered the policemen and as we write the lowest estimate of policemen killed by the kidnappers within the last one month should be around 20. This figure is just within the Osissioma axis alone. In terms of human population killed in Osissioma, they are far above 2,700 persons.
A lawyer who was kidnapped and kept for four days narrated his experience of how he was tied on a tree for good two days. And in those two days they poured cocoyam water on him, and look for harmful creeping insects which they equally use on him. And it was after these two days that they opened their demand. He noticed that there were about 13 different camps and new groups springing up and their overall leader was a young lady in her early thirties. Apart from those who normally move out and come back, he counted about 100 other boys and girls who are operating in the camp. In most cases, out of force and threat to their life they try to convert their victims into informants. After collecting money from you, they will subject you to such a level of inhuman act and in most cases they end up killing those who could not give the accurate information about whom else to kidnap.

Na wa ooooo

The Police Area Commander in Aba, Abia, ACP Rabiu Dayi, on Monday said that the police rescued a kidnapped business man in the town.

Dayi told newsmen in Aba that the police smashed had a gang of kidnappers terrorising Aba.

“We called you up this morning to show you another achievement we have recorded in crime fighting in Aba.

“Two kidnappers were gunned down by my men last week.

“Yesterday (Sunday) at about 10.a.m, a young businessman, whose name I will not mention for security reasons, went to No. 36 Omenazu Street, off Faulks Road, Aba to cut his hair.

“Four armed young men in a white-coloured Toyota Hilux van followed him into the salon and kidnapped him on gun point.

“When I got the information around 1.00 p.m., we started searching for information.

“We were reliably informed that the man was taken to Nwakanma’s compound at Amavo, Osisioma Ngwa Local Government Area, along Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway,” Dayi said.

The commander said that the police trailed the kidnappers to the compound which was alleged to be used by kidnappers as hideout.

According to him, in an early morning gun battle between the police and the gang, one person was killed while some others escaped with bullet wounds.

Dayi said that the victim was rescued unhurt while the police recovered two AK 47 riffles with 49 rounds of ammunitions and two motorcycles from the hideout.

The commander called on residents of Abia and neighbouring states to be watchful and to report any body with bullet wounds to the nearest police station for further action.

The commander urged people to be careful and to inform the police if they found any vehicle trailing them.

He said that members of the gang that robbed people at gunpoint at Iheorji in Aba South Local Government Area had been caught and would be charged to court.

Dayi, however, said that many cases were being stalled in courts in Aba because people were afraid of testifying against criminals, adding that such stance made things hard to try criminals in the area.

Dayi said people who testified in courts and volunteered information that would help to get judgments against criminals threatening the peace of the society, would get ``full protection''. (NAN)

Another kidnapping case:

After parting with a hard N1million, my friend's dad was allowed to go yesterday. He was also a victim of the mass kidnapping that took place two weeks ago. When we heard of his release, we went to see him and he narrated his ordeal to us. ** The camp where they were kept was situated at Asa village in interior Ngwa community, also in Aba. There were around 5 camps. He was able to tell because orders were shouted now and then to go bring someone from camp this or that, that his relatives have paid. These camps were previously residential buildings, but the owners have fled for their lives long ago. For food, they only ate enough to keep the worms at bay. Every victim has a ransom of N1m tied to him, it doesn't matter if you're worth it or not. No. Although they were blindfolded, the things he heard could make a nightmare for 50 people. If you try to remove the blindfold, you get a shot in the leg straight away. If you bargain poorly, you get up to thirty minutes beating. A popular steel magnate, Prince C.C. Infor Plc, is currently going through rounds of beating for asking to pay N500,000. They're about to retain a graduate of medicine who was kidnapped doing menial job in the Timber market, since he can't pay up. They only started kidnapping women because they won't stop gossiping. If the woman is young, they gang-r@p£ her and set her free. If aged, she gets the day light beaten out of her. Whenever money comes in there is a sporadic shots of celebration for about 30 minutes. . .I can't finish the whole story once but let me add this warning: They still have unfinished business at the Timber market. After that comes the big one -- Ariaria International Market! If you've been to that market before, you'll know what the casualty figure is going to be like. As for the governor of Abia State, I can only say: you shall reap whatever you sow.

An Aba Chief Magistrate in Abia State has remanded a native doctor and six other persons in prison custody over alleged kidnapping.

The seven persons arraigned on a two-count charge of conspiracy to commit felony and kidnapping were alleged to have been involved in the abduction of a female member of staff of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Channel 6, Aba, Mrs. Linda Osuala.

After the kidnap incident, a team of Anti-Robbery Squad from the Aba Area Police Command, led by ASP Anari Anari raided a forest between Umuezi Mgboko and Okpuala communities in Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia State, where Mrs Osuala was held hostage by her abductors, necessitating her release.

During the raid that lasted over six hours, police arrested 15 suspects, including a native doctor who was alleged to be involved in the preparation of charms for the kidnappers. After investigations, eight of the suspects were released while the remaining seven were charged to court.

When the police prosecutor, Victor Mbama read the charge the accused persons could not enter their pleas because the offence upon conviction carries capital punishment and as such could not be entertained by a Magistrate Court.
Accordingly, the Chief Magistrate K. I. Udo informed the parties that his court had no jurisdiction to entertain criminal cases with capital punishment(s) and ordered that the case be transferred to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) for legal advice.

Udo, however, fixed September 19 for report on compliance to the directives of the court and to allow the prosecutor to properly hand over the case to the DPP.

even if dem dash mii, i no go collect am.

Except, it comes with a duplex in Maitama as incentive.